Is current rugby headgear adequate?
- Publication Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Citation:
- 8th Australasian Congress on Applied Mechanics, ACAM 2014, as Part of Engineers Australia Convention 2014, 2014, pp. 244 - 251
- Issue Date:
- 2014-01-01
Closed Access
Filename | Description | Size | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
eager_david as published by ACAM.pdf | Published version | 515.79 kB |
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Closed Access
This item is closed access and not available.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) restricts the thickness of rugby headgear to no more than 10 mm (± 2 mm manufacturing tolerance) and the density to no more than 45 kg/m3 (± 15 kg/m3 manufacturing tolerance). This study presents data confirming these values are inadequate to protect the user (particularly the childhood user) from reasonably foreseeable impacts. The current IRB Regulations do not provide a great deal of flexibility for manufacturers to design a more effective headgear that would reduce the consequences of a head impact. A number of properties were measured including the maximum acceleration and head injury criteria of a headform fitted with the headgear. The two headgear that were commercially available and tested in this study had limited effectiveness to reduce the likelihood and/or consequences of a head related impact. It was concluded that the IRB should increase the maximum allowable headgear thickness to 20 ± 2 mm and also allow headgear manufacturers to optimise the performance by using composite foam with densities exceeding the current limit of 45 ± 15 kg/m3.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: