gsbaker
01-21-2004, 08:19 PM
I hesitate to post this because it smacks of blatant commercialism, but there is a method to my madness. If Bill (the moderator) chooses to send me into the electronic darkness, I probably deserve it--and apologize in advance.
We received an e-mail recently from a customer regarding a crash he had while using our product. Customers who post to the IT board have crashed, but I would like to know if their experiences were similar, i.e. how the system "feels" during an impact. We are simply attempting to confirm a theory. We could do this via phone/e-mail, but I felt some public cross-pollination might be valuable.
Crash dummies can't talk about how the system feels. Our best guess it that it should be relatively transparent--the force of the impact pulls the head one way, while the damper reaction pulls the head the other way. The force holding the head should be felt within the helmet, but the net force on the upper neck should be very low.
It would be best to get feedback from a very experienced professional driver, equipped with a data recording system, who had a slight impact that allowed him to notice how the ISAAC system functioned. We got that this week.
Ironically, the driver was my school instructor, Mick Robinson. There is a link to his Web site on our Racers' Comments page if you want the details. After my school Mick had two comments: 1) "I would like to try that shock restraint," and 2) "You are a really bad driver" (I'm paraphrasing--he was very diplomatic).
His e-mail is below, less a section dealing with sending the system back for evaluation, etc. My question for you headbangers is, Does this sound familiar?
Hello Gregg:
I have had some time to go over the data from my Sebring accident.
I was hit on the left front by the other car with a force of 1.56 G's from the side.
My car immediately headed right. The carousel at Sebring has the outside [tire] wall following the curve of the track. When I got hit, the car darted right so that I hit the wall at about a 60 degree angle. The speed on impact was 62 mph. The data shows 3.2 G's on the wall impact.
I immediately felt the ISAAC work on the frontal impact, but I did not notice anything on the left front hit.
The comfort of the impact still baffles me. I have hit several walls with an almost straight on impact and have had sore muscles immediately after and the days that followed. I have on one occasion felt an electrical shock go down the spinal cord on a similar accident at Daytona when I hit a car at a 90 degree angle at 98 mph. I have had the internal part of my throat swell for 2 days after one impact also.
After this incident, there was no muscle soreness at all. I did not have any soreness the following days either.
I feel so confident in the system, that I recommend that you sit in a sled and go through a 3.2 impact to see how well the device works. Seriously, there was nothing too it.
I don't think the shocks traveled to their maximum distance as the deceleration was gradual and very comfortable. My forehead did not feel as though it supported all of the force from the slowing down of my head. It was strange, but the whole force of the impact was absorbed by my whole head. I felt as though the cheeks, forehead, temples and lower rear of my skull equally felt the force of the deceleration. I'm not a test dummy with probes all over me, but that is the way it felt. Kinda like my head was wrapped in bubble paper. When the fluid traveled in the shocks, it felt like my head was in a cushion of air. I just didn't feel any violent movement from the wreck....
Thanks for working on a restraint device for racers. You have saved me a lot of pain from the wreck that I went through at Sebring.
This was a mild hit--nothing but a big tap really--but enough to invoke a damper reaction. A rough estimate suggests that he experienced a head load of nearly 100# if he were unprotected. That won't kill you of course, but it's still a nasty little yank.
Given that there is not a snowball's chance on a Florida beach that I will ever strap myself into a crash sled, I would like to know if any of this is familiar to those of you who have had a crunch.
Thanks.
[Edit: Proper formatting is appreciated by all]
------------------
Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com
[This message has been edited by gsbaker (edited January 21, 2004).]
We received an e-mail recently from a customer regarding a crash he had while using our product. Customers who post to the IT board have crashed, but I would like to know if their experiences were similar, i.e. how the system "feels" during an impact. We are simply attempting to confirm a theory. We could do this via phone/e-mail, but I felt some public cross-pollination might be valuable.
Crash dummies can't talk about how the system feels. Our best guess it that it should be relatively transparent--the force of the impact pulls the head one way, while the damper reaction pulls the head the other way. The force holding the head should be felt within the helmet, but the net force on the upper neck should be very low.
It would be best to get feedback from a very experienced professional driver, equipped with a data recording system, who had a slight impact that allowed him to notice how the ISAAC system functioned. We got that this week.
Ironically, the driver was my school instructor, Mick Robinson. There is a link to his Web site on our Racers' Comments page if you want the details. After my school Mick had two comments: 1) "I would like to try that shock restraint," and 2) "You are a really bad driver" (I'm paraphrasing--he was very diplomatic).
His e-mail is below, less a section dealing with sending the system back for evaluation, etc. My question for you headbangers is, Does this sound familiar?
Hello Gregg:
I have had some time to go over the data from my Sebring accident.
I was hit on the left front by the other car with a force of 1.56 G's from the side.
My car immediately headed right. The carousel at Sebring has the outside [tire] wall following the curve of the track. When I got hit, the car darted right so that I hit the wall at about a 60 degree angle. The speed on impact was 62 mph. The data shows 3.2 G's on the wall impact.
I immediately felt the ISAAC work on the frontal impact, but I did not notice anything on the left front hit.
The comfort of the impact still baffles me. I have hit several walls with an almost straight on impact and have had sore muscles immediately after and the days that followed. I have on one occasion felt an electrical shock go down the spinal cord on a similar accident at Daytona when I hit a car at a 90 degree angle at 98 mph. I have had the internal part of my throat swell for 2 days after one impact also.
After this incident, there was no muscle soreness at all. I did not have any soreness the following days either.
I feel so confident in the system, that I recommend that you sit in a sled and go through a 3.2 impact to see how well the device works. Seriously, there was nothing too it.
I don't think the shocks traveled to their maximum distance as the deceleration was gradual and very comfortable. My forehead did not feel as though it supported all of the force from the slowing down of my head. It was strange, but the whole force of the impact was absorbed by my whole head. I felt as though the cheeks, forehead, temples and lower rear of my skull equally felt the force of the deceleration. I'm not a test dummy with probes all over me, but that is the way it felt. Kinda like my head was wrapped in bubble paper. When the fluid traveled in the shocks, it felt like my head was in a cushion of air. I just didn't feel any violent movement from the wreck....
Thanks for working on a restraint device for racers. You have saved me a lot of pain from the wreck that I went through at Sebring.
This was a mild hit--nothing but a big tap really--but enough to invoke a damper reaction. A rough estimate suggests that he experienced a head load of nearly 100# if he were unprotected. That won't kill you of course, but it's still a nasty little yank.
Given that there is not a snowball's chance on a Florida beach that I will ever strap myself into a crash sled, I would like to know if any of this is familiar to those of you who have had a crunch.
Thanks.
[Edit: Proper formatting is appreciated by all]
------------------
Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com
[This message has been edited by gsbaker (edited January 21, 2004).]