Arai Helmet

Arai Helmet Limited (株式会社アライヘルメット) is a Japanese company that designs and manufactures motorcycle helmets and other helmets for motorsports.

The business has roots from the turn of the century involving cap production, followed by military headgear from 1930 onwards, industrial safety helmets after World War II, and finally motorcycle helmets from 1952 onward.[1][2]

History

Arai's origins can be traced back to the production of kepi-style caps by Yuichiro Arai in 1900. His son, Hirotake Arai (who succeeded his father in 1930), a keen motorcyclist, was approached to create a new design of sun-barrier caps for the growing Imperial Japanese Army, which was later involved in the 1934 invasion of China, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and World War II.[1]

After production was stopped during WWII, Hirotake Arai created the Arai Sewing Machine Company, which produced and exported

Technical aspects

Arai's helmets are hand-built,[7] with each fibre-reinforced plastic shell incorporating multiple reinforcing parts laid onto a round base (known as a "bird's nest").[2][8] Shells are assembled inside a concave metal mould, moulded using a process pioneered by Arai, inspected, and cured in a kiln before further processing and inspection.[8]

Safety

All Arai helmets sold in the US are made to meet or exceed Snell Memorial Foundation safety standards. A number of Arai helmets meet FIA requirements for Formula One and other motorsports.[9]

Arai Quantic and the new ECE 22.06 standard

For many years the safety standard that applied to motorcycle helmets sold in Europe had been ECE 22-05. The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) at the United Nations developed this testing for helmet safety, UN Regulation 22. It came into force in 1982 as ECE 22-02. The fifth amendment, 22-05, took effect from March 2005. The standard mandated numerous tests in a whole host of areas: the shell, the strap, the visor, the field of vision, and so on. But perhaps the most crucial test measured a helmet's ability to absorb the energy of an impact. Unchanged since 2005, the United Nations eventually updated the standard to the newer ECE 22.06. One of the criticisms of the ECE 22-05 was that the impacts were always directed at the same five points on the helmet. Under ECE 22-06, the testers randomly choose three further test points from a selection of 12. And this is important because, under the old system, it was theoretically possible for manufacturers to reinforce their helmets in the known areas.[10]

22-06 also measures what is known as angled impacts. It is now accepted that such blows can cause severe brain injuries as the brain potentially rotates violently inside the skull, causing tears in the brain's structure. And so 22-06 tests incorporate impacts against an anvil with a 45-degree angle. Extra sensors measure the twisting forces transmitted through the helmet to the rider's head. It was expected that under this particular test, rounder, smoother shells would perform better, and the first helmet to pass the new ECE 22.06 test was an Arai: the Quantic.[11]

type	Joint stock company
founder	Hirotake Arai
location city	Ōmiya-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture
location country	Japan
key people	Michio Arai (executive director) Akihito Arai
industry	Motorcycle helmet, auto racing, kart racing, and helmet manufacturing
homepage	www.araihelmet.com

History

Expansion

Technical aspects

Safety

Arai Quantic and the new ECE 22.06 standard

Accolades

Gallery

See also

External links

References