LifeMOD and the Leatt Corporation: Motorcycle Neck Brace
Client:
Leatt Brace
Business:
Motorsports safety equipment.
Challenge:
As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Chris Leatt has regularly witnessed motorcycle-related injuries, particularly to the neck. He noticed rider protection shielded all parts of the body except this area. As a result, he founded the Leatt Corporation to help prevent devastating motorsport injuries. The challenge lay in development and testing. Live testing of drivers was unreasonably dangerous. Crash dummies are expensive, and physical testing would require a hardware prototype of the neck brace. Building a state-of-the-art neck brace prototype would require molds for the carbon fiber shell and custom fabrication of the foam, multiplying the time and cost of development. How could Leatt advance designs faster and safely while controlling costs?
Solution:
LifeMOD/NeckSIM™ simulations of crash tests were run in advance of the hardware test. Using the variable bio-fidelity option, Leatt was able to create a detailed neck model to capture accurate cervical spine loading during the simulated crashes. With LifeMOD testing, the development team was able to make rapid changes and evaluate those changes quickly, without a hardware prototyping process. The result was a novel neck brace design, featuring a chin lip that safely balances rotational motion and cervical extension.
Value:
The unmatched safety performance of the Leatt neck brace led BMW to award Leatt Corporation a contract to provide a neck brace with each BMW motorcycle. Moving forward, the company’s lower development costs will allow its designers and engineers to accelerate the refinement of the brace design for even better performance.
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