The Conforming Armor Guard

AN INVENTION BY NICK SASH

Inventors Background

Idea came about by injury

I grew up playing soccer in grade school.

At the age of 12 years old I broke my leg playing soccer when I was hit from behind by slide tackling. I broke both bones in my lower leg from a spiral fracture and was in a cast for 4 months.

I was in a walking cast and sitting on the sidelines watching my peers play soccer when I realized I may have not suffered the break of my leg the way I did if I had a guard similar to that of my walking cast.

BIOMECHANICS OF THE SOCCER GUARD

-as described by Professor Pekka Luhtanen - Senior Researcher, KIHU Research Institute for Olympic Sports

Shin guards are suppose to protect the shins and ankles from the effects of direct contact by an opponent's boot.

Their primary function is meant to protect the skin, underlying soft tissues and bones of the lower leg from external impacts.

Shin guards are suppose to prevent injury by:

• shock absorption • load spreading• modifying the energy absorption

characteristics of the leg system

Shin Guard Current Construction

The shin guard is constructedwith:• a hard outer casing • a softer inner layerThe material used for the outercasing is usually:• thermoplastic molded to the

curvature of the leg• a shock absorbing inner

material made of ethylene vinyl acetate or other foam type material

Testing of Current Shin Guards

It has been attempted to qualify a shin guards performance (Lees & Cooper 1995).

In the tests, they tested the ability of 5 different types of contemporary shin guards to reduce the impact from a direct blow. The methodology used followed that for the testing of cricket pads. This involved dropping a 5 kg mass directly onto the pad from a set height of 40 cm , monitoring its deceleration on impact with the shin guard placed on an wooden leg form supported on a rigid surface. From this the delay time and energy return were computed.

Results:• showed that shin guards were effective

in providing a reduction in impact deceleration of between 40 - 60% when compared to striking the wooden leg form without shin guard protection (Nigg & Yeadon 1987). -

Results also showed: • significant differences between shin

guards with respect to peak deceleration which ranged from 28 to 56 % relative to the impact deceleration obtained without a shin guard.

• The poorer shin guard was constructed of a thermoplastic outer casing with a foam inner layer, while the better shin guard was of a similar thermoplastic outer shell, but with a 5 mm ethylene vinyl acetate inner layer.

They appeared to do this by increasing the delay time of the striker on the shin guard by 30 - 40 %. The harder outer shell of the shin guards acted as an area elastic surface and as such was likely effective in spreading the load. Thus it would seem likely that a combination of peak force reduction and an increase in impact area will reduce the localized pressure, and therefore the likelihood for skin abrasion and penetration from boots or studs.

Although between 40 %- 60% of the impact energy was absorbed, the shin guards themselves do not contain sufficient material to absorb large quantities of energy, and so it is unlikely that shin guards are capable of preventing fractures from high energy blows.

Each year 477,500 (+) soccer related injuries are treated in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and clinics. Source: American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons www.orthoinfo.org

Soccer Tournament records have shown that most players who sustained lower leg injuries were not protected by adequate shin guards.

source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s 1999 NEISS data and estimates.

The Regular Shin Guard Design

It doesn’t protect from all angles

It has no flexibility upon impact

It is one type for everyone

It doesn’t disburse the energy of the impact enough

Bottom Line:There is little protection from injury.

Here are some common types of fractures from soccer:

Problem!

The ordinary Soccer Guard protects the leg from a front impact only.

The amount of injury hasn’t decreased with newer shin guards because they’re all based on the same idea.

Common fractures still prove that even if you’re hit from the front, you are at high risk for injury.

THERE IS NO FULL LEG COVERAGE!

There is still injury above today’s shin guards where the knee pad can’t protect.

The Conforming Armor Guard

An Idea by Nick Sash

Whenever one body exerts force upon a second body, the second

body exerts an equal and opposite force upon the first body.

Newton's Third Law

1st Layer absorbs impact blow

2nd Layer supports the absorption layer and reacts to the diminished impact force

3rd Layer absorbs any residual force

SO WHAT!

The Conforming Armor Guard reacts to the stress of impact to the leg by absorbing the impact and disbursing the energy around the leg through its 3 layers