It’s time for school to start again and in my neighborhood, that means there’s lots of young bike riders on the road. And just in time, there’s a new ASTM F1447 2012 Edition, “Standard Specification for Helmets Used in Recreational Bicycling or Roller Skating,” available from Document Center Inc. This specification covers performance requirements for helmets manufactured for use by non-professional bicyclists or roller skaters.
When I was a kid, one of our neighbors got interested in why a fellow auto racer had died in a crash from brain injuries when his helmet was spotless. Dr. Snively went on to spearhead the first helmet safety standards and to found the Snell Memorial Foundation. (As an aside, he and his wife also saved my life when I stepped on a bee in our front year and went into anaphylaxic shock!) So I’m always interested in the promulgation of these documents and the wide impact they’ve had on public safety.
This particular specification recognizes the desirability of lightweight construction and ventilation for helmets for the general public. But it is a performance standard and is not intended to restrict design.
When you purchase a helmet, you may see this standard number on the packaging. Any statement of compliance with this specification means thats the product passed all of the requirements of the specification in its entirety. A product that fails to meet any one of the requirements of ASTM F1447-12 is considered to have failed the standard and should not be sold with any indication that it meets parts of the standard.
What kinds of tests will the helmet have passed? They’re tested using anvils. Helmets are impacted with anvils centered on or above the prescribed test line. The test anvils can be oriented in any horizontal, centered position. One each hot, cold, wet, and ambient helmets are impacted using the flat and hemispherical anvils only. A curbstone anvil is used to impact one time each of the second set of four samples, using one of the four conditioning environments each time. The peak acceleration of the impulse during the impact is also measured. The ambient helmet is subjected to the positional stability (roll-off) test, while the hot, cold, and wet helmets are subjected to the dynamic strength retention test.
You can find and purchase all current and many obsolete ASTM standards on our website, www.document-center.com. Or contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com). We’re glad to be of assistance to you with all your standards requirements and questions.
