Solo is a user-centered, fully personalized bike helmet produced using additive SLS 3D printing and a parametric design approach.
Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?
Standard helmets are offered in sizes like S, M, and L, but head shapes vary significantly, resulting in poor fit and protection, leading to non-usage. Traditional helmets are made from polystyrene, the same material used in disposable packaging. The Production Process of Foam Helmet has seen little change for the past 30 years, yielding bulky designs that tend to cause overheating. Solo is a user-centered, fully personalized bike helmet crafted through additive SLS 3D printing and a parametric design approach. Based on a 3D scan and breathable lattice structure, it ensures optimal fit and safety. The app captures preferences like riding style and color, resulting in lattice structure that offers a balance of lightness and shock absorption. Made by Protiq from sustainable PA11, its a recyclable foam alternative. This process-oriented project enables personalized helmets that encourage wearing.
Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).
The process begins with a 3D scan of the user’s head utilizing a scanning cap. The scan can be carried out using a mobile phone, saving you a trip to a specialist shop. This scan, along with additional preferences such as riding style and color choice, is inputted into the Solo app. The scan data undergoes cloud-based processing, enabling the creation of a personalized helmet design. Through field-driven ramps, material flow is precisely controlled, ensuring optimal structural integrity where needed most. 3D-Printing technology is then employed to fabricate the helmet in a single printing process, using Polyamide 11 derived from sustainable castor bean seeds. After printing, excess powder is recycled for future use, aligning with sustainability principles. The helmet’s components, including the mono-material PA11 shell, TPU pads, and replaceable straps, are modular for easy maintenance and end-of-life recycling.
What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?
To find the optimal lattice-structure that is breathable, lightweight and impact resistant, many different iterations were generated, tested and evaluated. In order to test the lattice structures for their shock absorption, a special setup was developed, which is modelled after the requirements and test procedures of the industry standard DIN 1078 for bicycle helmets. The developed tetrahedral-lattice-structure offers the same level of safety as a conventional helmet while requiring less material. This provides an optimal balance between weight and shock absorption, resulting in a streamlined fit with improved ventilation and heat dissipation. Utilizing 3D-Printing, the Helmet is printed from castor seed-based PA11. PA11 offers a sustainable alternative to conventional foam, being 100% renewable, drought-resistant, and easily cultivated. This helmet design combines functionality, comfort and user-friendliness into a cohesive concept, encouraging helmet use and contrasting with conventional helmets made from expanded polystyrene, a non-renewable material used in disposable cookware and packaging.
Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?
Solo, as a personalized bike helmet, represents a path towards how individually designed products could become commercially available in the future. It indicates a way to approach product consumption, advocating for sustainability by emphasizing longevity over frequent replacement. This process-oriented project enabled the development of personalized bike helmets that encourage people to wear them and therefore contribute to greater road safety.
