I am a University of Cincinnati student working on a project to design and improve the fire helmet. Last month I posted a survey on these forums to gather information and opinions from firefighters around the nation and the response I received was overwhelming and fantastic.
Now I have a new survey which show three of my proposed ideas for a new fire helmet. They are hand drawn, explained and labeled. If anyone out there can spare a few minutes to review them and answer a few questions I would greatly appreciate it. I am looking for as much feedback as possible, both constructive and critical, so feel free to be as honest as you like.
Great interesting work! If you have commercial intentions for your helmets, one suggestion if you haven't done already, get a hold of the NFPA 1971- 2007 Edition Standard on Protective Ensemble for Structural Firefighting and take a close look at the lab test requirements for helmets. Unless your design(s) can meet these requirements it will be very difficult for these helmets to get traction in the market place. (You can view a "read only" version of the Standard or purchase one on the NFPA web-site.)
You can perhaps also get some lab test requirements technical guidance from UL (North Carolina office) or Intertek Testing Services (Cortland, NY office).
One other consideration, the NFPA 1971 Standard will revise around the end of next year and there might be some changes in the test requirements for helmets. You should monitor the 1971 Committee activity on the NFPA web-site to keep updated.
Good Luck!