A concussion is the most common head injury found in sports today, especially in Ice Hockey where a large number of players are affected. It has been reported that, in the last five years, the rate of professional players in North America reporting concussions has increased to more than three times that of the previous decade.;A new helmet testing apparatus has been developed and is presented. The new test evaluates how well the helmet reduces the angular acceleration of the head. The angular acceleration is induced through impact at the rear of the head allowing rotation in the saggital plane. The velocity and stroke of the impactor can be held constant for all tests. An accelerometer is mounted at a known distance from the axis of rotation of the headform to measure the tangential acceleration. The impact force is measured using a load cell located on the impactor shaft. Verification of the sensor system is completed using an angular impulse analysis along with a solution of the equation of motion of the test apparatus. An example helmet comparison is performed to display how the new apparatus can be used to compare various ice hockey helmets.;Many believe it is angular acceleration that causes the tearing or twisting within the brain resulting in a breakdown of normal communications between brain functions. If this is the case, the current helmet testing standards used in North America are not adequate. For example, the Canadian Standard ice hockey helmet test, CAN/CSA-Z262.1-M90, uses a drop test to characterise impact protection. This test is adequate to rate the impact absorption for translational acceleration of the helmet but there is no test for the ability of the helmet to reduce angular acceleration.
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