Youngstown kicks off NFL Helmet Challenge

This week, the NFL turns its attention toward our neck of the woods, taking the first steps in designing a new helmet at a three-day symposium hosted by America Makes in Youngstown.

The ultimate goal is to use additive manufacturing technology to expand the possibilities for player safety.

Studying concussions is nothing new for the NFL; they've been doing that for years at this point. Today's focus is preventing them in the first place.

"We have physicians and neurosurgeons and a whole group of concussion experts that deal with this event and how to help the player, but if you look you're not stopping the event," said Dr. John York, the co-chairman of the San Francisco 49ers as well as the chairman for the NFL Owner's Health and Safety Advisory Committee. "So if you look at the event and start to study back here, what happened? What's the difference between hitting somebody in the ear hole versus in the face mask versus the back of the head."

That's the kind of data the NFL brings to the table this week. The event as a whole will bring together experts in a variety of fields, most notably additive manufacturing.

It's a process already being used in the linings of some helmets, but now we're talking about the helmet itself.

"Tailor the mechanical performance of a football helmet based on the design freedom of additive manufacturing and the diversity of new materials that are available," said Eric MacDonald, a professor at Youngstown State University and the school's Friedman chair for manufacturing. "It's just a prime time to really take helmets to the next level."

Some of the unique aspects of additive manufacturing are what makes it attractive in a case like this. The ability to create lattice structures can help soften a blow, and the unique way of layering also gives manufacturers the ability to implant sensors.

"It's the access to the intermediate layers while you're building something that you can now put in electronics and wires, sensors and antennas so that you can make an object that is complex and has electronics and sensors more particularly in very specific locations throughout an object or structure," said MacDonald.

"So these sensors will be able to take into consideration force that's being inputted, heat, humidity. There's a bunch of things that we can be tracking while, in real-time, the players are actually wearing the helmets and playing the game," said Ashley Totin, a project engineer with America Makes.

Those kinds of next-level ideas, along with the culture of collaboration, are why the NFL is in Youngstown, Ohio, this week.

"You've got this whole community of additive manufacturing companies, so it made perfect sense to have this symposium here," said Dr. York.

"There is something going on in additive manufacturing, and the epicenter for it is right here in Youngstown, right in your back yard," said Totin.

Putting a futuristic twist on the term backyard football.

The NFL Helmet Challenge symposium kicks off Wednesday night at 6 p.m., but this is just the very beginning of a lengthy process. 

The immediate goal for this three-day session is to provide everyone with the detailed information the NFL has been tracking, then begin to create teams that will combine areas of expertise to try and create a safer product.

Grants are available, which will be handed out in March. The deadline for submissions to the challenge will come in April of 2021, with prototypes due May 14th of 2021.