New firefighting helmet concepts

[Ziegleia]

Hello, I am a junior design student at the University of Cincinnati. My project this quarter is redesigning a firefighters helmet. I would like to post some sketches to get feedback on what would be the best direction to go for my project. Any comments would be appreciated. (all of the helmets will have chinstraps and ear flaps). If there are certain features you like from different helmets I can create a whole new helmet with different elements. Or any additional features you would like added please let me know.
Any feedback is appreciated
Thank you for your time!

[76Truck]

A lighter traditional looking NFPA approved leather is all I can say. Not really liking the look of your concept designs. Call me old school but look to euro. Nice job though.

[billyleach]

I like the looks of your concepts.

[FFtbrat]

Cpat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfQU1tlZ8Q4

[Tony4310]

A lighter traditional looking NFPA approved leather is all I can say. Not really liking the look of your concept designs. Call me old school but look to euro. Nice job though.

I'm with you. The Euro look design is a turn off for me, but he's on the right track!

[DarkStarr]

#1 please!

[SkylinePCG]

Root through history; theres a reason why helmets are, by and large, the same as they were 150 years ago.

The top priority has always been function over form and the bottom line is this:

They work.

[mrpita]

Overall, your concepts are good, but there are some changes that I feel would be necessary for approval/acceptance by the majority of FFs. Of course I don't really feel qualified to speak for the majority of FFs - I wear a "salad bowl" and have no personal experience with the traditional style you have adopted/adapted.

Some of the details/fine print in your designs are hard to read (no doubt a limitation of this site and its attachment size requirements). I also assume that these are only preliminary design sketches, and this is purely academic. In other words, there will not be a prototype or more detailed, dimensioned, or specified design revision forthcoming. (This is just to show the concepts, not the nuts/bolts, right?) So comments like, "make sure with the integrated faceshields, the user can still have room to wear prescription glasses and/or accessory goggles", become unnecessary.

Some things are nit-picky details, such as (Concepts 3 and 4) seems to show LEDs in the very edge of the brim. I like very much the ideas of an integrated light, but not there. First, when wearing my helmet it may generally be pushed back/forth a few degrees. So would the angle/path of the light also change, and would it be so much as to put the light where I'm not looking? Secondly, the edge of my brim gets pretty banged up, and I have no doubt having the LEDs positioned there would lead to premature failure or damage. Which leads me to my next thought, your design does not show it but the LEDs would need to be a replaceable component - LEDs can/do fail, why trash a helmet just because one minor part fails? Third, I have two helmet lights currently - a Streamlight Vantage and a Foxfury Command 20. Each are LED, but differing styles - one is a more focused beam/single LED, and the other a more dilute/diffuse LED array. If I had to choose just one, it'd be the Vantage/focused beam. Your design seems more the diffuse variety, especially the LED panels (in Concept 4) just below where the frontice piece would be. Your (classmate?), Mr. Carr - with the USAR design I have seen elsewhere, seems to have used the focused beam style.

Again, perhaps more detailed than you are looking for. As I said, your designs are good overall. The above is one bit of review of one bit of your design - that I can just barely make out legibility-wise. I could go on at some length for some time. I would also be interested to know what Concept 2 was and why it was eliminated.

If you would care to hear more, PM me.