Arai Helmets - come sono costruiti?

An insight into Arai Helmets - Safety in Design and Manufacture

Arai Motorsport Helmets

Recently we were invited to Silverstone Race Circuit by Fyshe, the new official importers for the infamous Arai Motorsport Helmets. As some of you may be aware, there have been some issues with stock of Arai helmets during the past 6 months whilst a new importer was appointed. Now this has been achieved, Arai helmets are now back in stock.

The reason for the invite was for Fyshe to give us some background information on Arai the brand and also an insight in to what goes in to the designing and manufacture of Arai helmets. With this in mind, we thought it might be interesting to share this information with our valued customers.

For over 60 years Arai have been designing, developing and manufacturing helmets for firstly motorcycle use and latterly moving in to designing and manufacturing state of the art helmets for car racing. In 2012, Arai are represented in Formula 1 by more than 50% of the drivers on the grid (12 drivers including Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton).
Arai’s current line up of Motorsport Helmets meet Snell’s stringent SA2010 Approval whilst the GP6RC Helmet also meets FIA 8860-2004 Homologation which is required for use in Formula 1. This Carbon Fibre constructed helmet comes at a premium at around £2500 excluding VAT, but the same technology goes into the rest of Arai’s range of Motorsport Helmets. Likewise, on average, Arai produce 15 GP6RC helmets per season for Lewis Hamilton alone. After painting, the bill footed by McLaren for these is nearly £50,000!

All bar two of the processes which go in to manufacturing an Arai Helmet, be it a Carbon GP6RC Helmet or the ever popular GP6S Helmet, are carried out by hand. Meaning each helmet is visually inspected all the way through the manufacturing processes, something which cannot be achieved on other mass-produced machined helmets.

The Outer Shell

The outer shell of all Arai helmets are completely handmade by dedicated craftsmen out of several types of ‘Super Glass Fibre’. This ‘Super Glass Fibre’ has been exclusively developed by Arai. The reinforced resin material is the best for protection against impact. Originally developed for space and army defence technology, the specific gravity of the ‘Super Glass Fibre’ is 2.4 and it is 40% stronger for extension and bending resistance when compared to normal fibreglass.

The GP6S, GP5W and GP Jet Helmet’s outer shell features ‘Complex Laminate Construction’ which features two layers of ‘Super Glass Fibre’ with one middle layer of composite fibre to form a light yet extremely stiff and strong shell.

The GP6PED Helmet’s outer shell features ‘Super Complex Laminate Construction’ making it a lighter material than that featured in the GP6S etc. The middle layer of this construction uses a very special, ultra strong and lightweight material exclusive to Arai.

The GP6RC Carbon Helmets feature an extremely strong and light outer shell with no less the eleven carefully applied layers of premium Carbon Fibre. Featuring Arai’s patented PB-SNC® Construction (Peripheral Belting-Structural Net Composite)

PB-SNC is Arai’s newest and most advanced Fibre Glass shell construction. ‘PB’ is short for ‘Peripherally Belted’. This system consists of a strengthening belt across the helmet, just above the visor opening, giving the outer shell even more strength and stiffness. ‘SNC’ is short for ‘Structural Net Composite’ and incorporates a structural net reinforcing material embedded between Arai’s exclusive ‘Super Complex Laminate Construction layers. The specially developed strands bond the layers more rigidly to further improve shell integrity and impact-force management.
PB-SNC allows for more weight to be removed from the top of the shell, reducing overall helmet weight , while it lowers the centre of gravity, resulting in better balance and reduced fatigue for more comfort.

The Inner Shell

The role of the inner shell is to absorb impact from the outer shell. The unique one-piece polystyrene Arai inner shell protects the head by functioning as a safety cell. It smoothly reduces the impact energy as the cells in the liner are compressed and destroyed piece by piece, extending the time of the impact.

The liners feature different densities of foam. The front, a small area must absorb the impact energy here, therefore a harder (50 grams/litre) liner is used here to prevent total liner destruction under impact. The top, a large area can absorb the impact energy, therefore a softer lining is preferred. The helmet will gently hold the head during impact using softer 28-34 grams/litre. The side and rear sections protect important parts of the head, but the available area for absorption is smaller than the top, therefore a harder (38 grams/litre) is used.

Arai 'There is a difference'

Arai’s commitment to constantly striving for the safest motorsport helmets means they are one of the leading manufacturers and provide unrivalled quality. And you can rest assured you will be wearing a helmet which has met and passed all the stringent tests set by the FIA. Why not experience ‘the Arai difference’.

As an example, in 2005, one Arai customer put his Arai helmet to an extreme test. Whilst racing in Brazilian Formula Renault, Alberto Valerio was dicing for fifth place when a fellow racer flipped in front of him. ‘I was going through the left hander at around 150MPH when the car in front hit a kerb which pitched it in to the air. Then I felt something. It was his car on mine.’

Valerio continued: ‘I got the car back to the pits, touched my helmet and felt a huge hole in it. I was taken to hospital for tests and discharged two hours later with no injuries at all.’