{"id":141,"date":"2021-10-29T14:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bikeradar.com\/?p=650757"},"modified":"2021-10-29T14:18:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T12:18:27","slug":"what-is-mips-how-does-it-work-and-is-it-really-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/rss_feed\/what-is-mips-how-does-it-work-and-is-it-really-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is MIPS, how does it work and is it really worth it?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>
By Stan Portus\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Friday, 29 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>
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If you\u2019ve been helmet shopping in the last few years, the likelihood is you will have seen a MIPS-equipped helmet, recognisable from the yellow liner and small yellow dot on the outside of the helmet.<\/p>\n
But what is MIPS and why do so many helmets now have this technology?<\/p>\n
We spoke to MIPS and were guided around its HQ in Stockholm, Sweden (via video) to understand what MIPS is, how it works, the history of the technology, and whether it is worth getting a helmet with MIPS.<\/p>\n
MIPS sold 7.3 million units in 2020.<\/span><\/figcaption>MIPS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
MIPS stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection and is an \u2018ingredient\u2019 safety technology that over 120 brands incorporate into their helmets. In 2020, there were around 729 helmets with MIPS on the market and 7.3 million units sold.<\/p>\n
MIPS is used in many cycling helmets, but it is also used in equestrian helmets, construction helmets and motorbike helmets.<\/p>\n
The MIPS system itself is a low friction layer that sits between the helmet liner and the head, and allows for a sliding motion of 10 to 15mm in all directions. This aims to reduce the transfer of rotational impacts onto your brain.<\/p>\n
MIPS says this can drastically reduce the chances of severe injury. This is because while linear, or straight-on, impacts can lead to skull fractures and bleeding, rotational impacts can lead to concussion and serious traumatic brain injuries.<\/p>\n
In this diagram, you can see where the yellow MIPS layer sits within a helmet.<\/span><\/figcaption>MIPS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
In short, MIPS works by using a moving layer to prevent rotational impacts from passing onto your brain. But, as you might have guessed, it\u2019s all a bit more complicated than that.<\/p>\n
MIPS mimics the way a head protects against rotational impacts.<\/span><\/figcaption>MIPS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
At its core, MIPS technology mimics your head\u2019s own protective structure. Between your skull and your brain is a layer of cerebrospinal fluid, which allows your brain to slide inside your head, protecting it from rotational forces caused by oblique impacts.<\/p>\n
MIPS says that while most helmets are designed to deal with linear forces, its systems account for these rotational forces.<\/p>\n
It makes sense when you think about any time you\u2019ve crashed a bike, or even just fallen over. The likelihood of you being dropped vertically onto the ground being exposed only to a linear force is incredibly slim \u2013 there is almost always an angle involved.<\/p>\n
Peter Halldin, chief technical officer at MIPS, explains what happens when you fall at an angle and how the MIPS system counteracts the rotational forces caused because of this:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you fall to the ground, we have the horizontal speed forward and the impact to the ground, and during that impact, there is a tangential force that will lead to rotation of the helmet and the head.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we actually do with the MIPS system is mimic a fall on ice. So instead of [the head] grabbing into the ground and experiencing rotation, it\u2019s more like we slide on ice and continue in the direction we were supposed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
By introducing the sliding layer into the helmet, the head and brain are given a better chance of continuing in a linear direction during the impact, as opposed to being exposed to dangerous rotational forces.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth noting the time frame in which a helmet can actually do something to help prevent serious brain injury is slim.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very quick impact,\u201d explains Halldin. \u201cThe duration of the impact is about 5 to 10 milliseconds. During this very short time, the force and the acceleration on the head is very high. It\u2019s like having more than ten people standing on your head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halldin says MIPS allows your head to keep moving even with this amount of pressure applied and stresses how a helmet without a low friction layer wouldn\u2019t be as able to move around on your head.<\/p>\n
Why is protecting against rotational force so important?<\/h2>\n
MIPS uses some pretty serious jigs to test its technology, with high-speed cameras and accelerometer-equipped dummy heads.<\/span><\/figcaption>MIPS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
There are two analogies used by the team at MIPS to help explain what\u2019s at stake, and why preventing rotational forces from transferring to the brain is important.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe human brain is very similar to water when it comes to shear properties,\u201d says Halldin.<\/p>\n
Like water, the brain cannot be compressed. If you expose a bowl of water or a human head to a linear force, Halldin says you will see very low deformation figures for the central part of the bowl of water and the brain. However, if you introduce a rotational force you will see higher strain values on the centre.<\/p>\n
Marcus Seyffarth, head of product development at MIPS, uses the analogy of stretching a rubber band to explain the effect these strain values can have.<\/p>\n
The more you stretch an elastic band the less likely it is to return to its original shape, and the same can be said for rotational forces in the brain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you get a little bit of rotational motion in the brain, nothing will happen. If you get a little bit more, you might be a little bit concussed, but you\u2019ll be ok. But if you get a little more than that you might get a severe traumatic brain injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
This severe traumatic brain injury can manifest in different ways. The axons, or the nerve fibres, in your brain can shear causing diffuse axonal injury (DAI), or the veins can tear leading to a subdural haematoma, where blood collects between your brain and skull. This can lead to various symptoms from feeling sick to paralysis on one side of the body.<\/p>\n
Who created MIPS?<\/h2>\n
MIPS\u2019 origins extend back to 1995 when Halldin, a PhD student at the time, was researching the biomechanics of head and neck injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understood that the brain could slide inside of the skull in the cerebrospinal fluid. So I asked my supervisor Hans von Holst, the brain surgeon, if this safety system could be applied in a helmet and he said \u2018that\u2019s a great idea\u2019. So we started to work on this idea and found that it probably had a good potential to increase safety in helmets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair started to research the types of impacts experienced by bicycle and motorcycle helmets as well as the current test standards.<\/p>\n
Through this, they realised the standards tested only for linear impacts rather than rotational forces, and came up with the idea for MIPS in 1996. The first scientific publication regarding MIPS was published at the beginning of the 2000s.<\/p>\n
Halldin and von Holst then founded MIPS AB in 2001, and in 2007 launched the first MIPS helmet, which was actually an equestrian helmet.<\/p>\n
The company released the first third-party helmet with MIPS a few years later. They realised there was greater potential to get MIPS into helmets if they worked with other helmet manufacturers, as opposed to producing their own. This is a business model much like Gore-Tex or Polartec, which sell their fabrics to different clothing companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a small company,\u201d says Halldin. \u201cIt takes quite a lot of effort to get your product in different helmet segments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time in 2010, we felt we had a better possibility to save more lives if we became an \u2018ingredient\u2019 brand. As a result, we\u2019ve been able to integrate into many, many more helmets than we would\u2019ve done if we were just a helmet brand ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, MIPS works with helmet manufacturers to include MIPS technology in their helmets from the very beginning of the design process, and the company also works with brands to advise on other aspects of helmet design.<\/p>\n
Does MIPS affect helmet size?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
When MIPS first started introducing its technology into helmets, it was retrofitting the technology into helmets that were already available on the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This meant that there was an impact on the size of the helmet because MIPS was adding a 0.5 to 0.8mm layer, which reduced available headspace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, this isn\u2019t something that typically happens anymore because MIPS now works with brands from the development stage of their helmets, integrating the safety tech from the get-go.<\/p>\n
This means brands can now account for the space MIPS takes up and keep fit more true to size.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
Does MIPS really work?<\/h2>\n
The question of whether MIPS really works is a complicated one with different research bodies and MIPS itself making various claims around the effectiveness of the safety system.<\/p>\n
MIPS has a range of dummy heads to mimic different head sizes.<\/span><\/figcaption>MIPS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
A lot of MIPS\u2019 time is dedicated to testing its technology in its own laboratory. In fact, testing has been core to MIPS\u2019 activities right from its inception. When I spoke to MIPS it was just about to pass 48,600 completed tests.<\/p>\n
MIPS\u2019 own testing shows that a helmet fitted with MIPS leads to a significant strain reduction compared to the same helmet without MIPS.<\/p>\n
MIPS measures the strain caused by an impact by using dummy heads that have the same kinematics as a human head and are fitted with six accelerometers.<\/p>\n
The dummy heads are used in a variety of tests, including dropping the heads from a height of 6.2 metres per second onto angled surfaces.<\/p>\n
The tests are recorded with high-speed cameras to ensure consistency across tests, so unexpected outcomes can be analysed.<\/p>\n
The data recorded by the accelerometers is then fed into the company\u2019s FE (finite element) model of the head and brain, which can model what would happen in a crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor each impact, we save 1,875 data points per accelerometer,\u201d says Seyffarth. \u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of data we put into the FE model, and we do a step-by-step millisecond simulation if this had been an actual human having that impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each test creates thousands of data points which MIPS then feeds into its FE computer model.<\/span><\/figcaption>MIPS<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
Seyffarth says any helmet available on the market with the MIPS yellow dot has been tested by the company and passed the standards it requires for release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we are releasing or approving a helmet for production, we have an internal protocol where we require at least a 10 per cent reduction in strain in every impact location, every helmet and every size.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s the minimum. We see everything from 10.1 per cent to 75 per cent reduction in strain. I would say the most common is somewhere in the area of 25 to 30 per cent reduction in strain.\u201d<\/p>\n
You might argue that a 10 per cent reduction doesn\u2019t seem like a lot. But if you imagine the scale of brain injury as starting with a steep section and then proceeding to level off, you can begin to see how that 10 per cent is critical and, as Seyffarth says, can be the difference between riding tomorrow or not.<\/p>\n
MIPS is keen to stress it can only really verify the system is safer in the lab conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery helmet is different, every accident is different and every person is different,\u201d Seyffarth explains. \u201cSo when we test helmets, we test them in an isolated way to make sure our system works.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at the actual number when we approve a helmet, but the absolute numbers might differ between different helmets and helmet brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we approve helmets, we only use data from the same day. We would really like to have helmets made from the same batch, in the same exact humidity, and all that, so we get rid of as many factors as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seyffarth says comparing helmets isn\u2019t like comparing \u201capples to apples\u201d, and this is why MIPS will never claim one helmet to be 30 per cent safer than another, for example.<\/p>\n
External MIPS testing<\/h3>\n
But what do other people say about MIPS safety?<\/p>\n
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