Sports Protective Equipment Testing

Sports protective equipment inspection mainly conducts scientific testing and analysis on mechanical protection performance testing, material physical and chemical property testing, biosafety testing, structural design and fixation system testing, and environmental adaptability and durability testing, objectively assessing the product quality grade and issuing a detailed test report, providing a basis for manufacturers' quality control and downstream users' product acceptance.

Testing Items

Mechanical protection performance testing: Mainly evaluates the ability of the protective equipment to resist the impact, puncture, cutting and tearing of the external forces. For example, the impact absorption and puncture testing are carried out on the helmets, simulating the scenarios of the head being struck by the falling objects or pierced by the sharp objects; the impact energy attenuation testing is carried out on the knee pads and elbow pads, ensuring that they can effectively disperse and buffer the impact forces and protect the joints from injury.

Material physical and chemical property testing: Analyses the physical and chemical properties of the main materials of the protective equipment. Including the mechanical properties such as the tensile strength, elongation at break, tearing strength, hardness and abrasion resistance of the material, as well as the environmental adaptability such as the resistance to perspiration, water, light and heat aging, ensuring that the performance is stable and not easy to age and fail under the complex use conditions.

Biosafety testing: Emphatically evaluates the safety of the materials directly contacting the human skin. The testing items cover the pH value, formaldehyde content, decomposable carcinogenic aromatic amine dyes, heavy metal (such as lead and cadmium) contents, as well as the sensitization and irritation. For the helmet liners and the inner pads of the protectors, the antibacterial and mildew resistance performance also needs to be examined, preventing the skin problems caused by the bacterial growth under the long-term use.

Structural design and fixation system testing: Examines the overall structural rationality and wearing stability of the protective equipment. For example, the field of vision range of the helmet and the strength of the wearing device (such as the static and dynamic strengths of the straps and buckles) are tested; the repeated opening and closing durability of the straps or Velcro of the protectors and the anti-slippage performance after fixation are evaluated, ensuring that the protection position does not shift during the intense exercise.

Environmental adaptability and durability testing: Simulates the actual use environment, evaluating the long-term reliability and function retention of the protective equipment. Including the high and low temperature cycling testing, UV aging testing, salt spray corrosion testing (for the metal parts) and the dynamic fatigue testing simulating the long-term use, verifying whether the core protection performance of the product still meets the requirements after multiple uses or harsh weather.

Testing Scope

Head protection equipment: Mainly including the various sports helmets, such as the bicycle helmets, roller skating helmets, skiing helmets, equestrian helmets, climbing helmets and fencing masks. The testing needs to cover all the key components such as the shell, cushioning layer, wearing device, field of vision and ventilation holes, ensuring that they can provide the effective protection for the head in the specific sports impact scenarios.

Trunk and joint protection equipment: Covering the shoulder pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, waist guards, knee pads and ankle guards. The testing scope is not limited to the protection performance of the body materials, but emphasizes the fit with the human joints, movement flexibility and the reliability of the fixation system, ensuring that the protection does not hinder the movement and can precisely protect the vulnerable parts.

Hand and foot protection equipment: Including the sports gloves (for cycling, skiing and fitness), various sports-specific shoes (such as the protective structures of the football boots and climbing shoes), finger guards and palm guards. The testing focus is on the impact resistance, friction resistance, grip performance and the protection ability for the key bones and tendons of the hands and feet, such as the impact resistance of the palm pads of the gloves and the strength of the ankle support structures of the sports shoes.

Professional and extreme sports protective equipment: For the protectors of the combat sports such as the boxing and taekwondo (mouthguards, chest protectors and groin protectors), as well as the professional equipment such as the motorcycle racing suits and fencing suits. The testing scope is stricter, and often involves the special and high-grade safety performance requirements such as the high-energy impact absorption, weapon puncture resistance (such as the fencing) and flame retardancy.

Sports goggles and masks: Including the skiing goggles, swimming goggles, ball sports goggles and fencing masks. The testing scope mainly includes the impact resistance (anti-shattering) of the lenses, optical performance (diopter, light transmittance and anti-fogging), UV protection factor, as well as the flexibility, wearing comfort and sealing of the frames.

Testing Methods

Impact absorption performance testing: A falling weight or pendulum impact testing machine is usually adopted. The helmet or protector sample is fixed on the standard headform, and the striker of the specified mass freely falls from a specific height to impact the specific parts of the sample, and the acceleration transmitted to the headform (expressed in G value) is measured through the sensors. This method is used to quantitatively evaluate the efficiency of the protective equipment in dispersing and absorbing the impact energy, and is the core testing method of the helmet products.

Puncture and sharp object impact testing: Evaluates the ability of the protective equipment to resist the piercing of the sharp objects. For the helmets, a conical puncture striker of the specified shape and mass falls from a fixed height to impact the top of the helmet, examining whether it is pierced. For the protectors, an impact head of the specific shape may be used to simulate the impact of the sharp objects, and after the testing, it is checked whether the inner layer material is damaged or has obvious indentations.

Abrasion and dynamic cutting testing: The Martindale or Taber abrasion tester is commonly used for the abrasion testing, and the standard abrasive is used to carry out the reciprocating or rotating friction on the sample surface under the specific pressure, evaluating the durability by the mass loss or appearance change. The dynamic cutting testing is used for the products such as the gloves, using a rotating circular blade to cut the sample under the constant pressure, recording the number of cycles or force value required to cut through.

Mechanical property testing: Carried out in accordance with the material standards, using a universal material testing machine. Including the tensile testing (obtaining the tensile strength and elongation at break), tearing testing (evaluating the tear propagation resistance of the material) and peel strength testing (for the composite materials or bonding parts). These data are the basic basis for judging whether the main materials of the protective equipment meet the strength requirements.

Environmental preconditioning and performance retention testing: Before the key performance (such as the impact absorption) testing, a series of environmental preconditioning is carried out on the samples first, simulating the actual use conditions. The common preconditioning includes the high-temperature treatment (such as 50 °C), low-temperature treatment (such as -20 °C), water immersion treatment and UV irradiation aging. The testing is carried out immediately after the treatment, verifying the stability of the protection performance of the product under the harsh environments.

Testing Standards

Domestic Standards:

1. GB 24428-2009, Sports helmets — Safety requirements and test methods for helmets for pedal cyclists, skateboards and roller skates

2. GB 18401-2010, National general safety technical code for textile products

International Standards:

1. EN 1078, Helmets for pedal cyclists and for users of skateboards and roller skates

2. EN 1077, Helmets for alpine skiers and snowboarders

3. CPSC 16 CFR Part 1203, Safety standard for bicycle helmets

4. EN 1621-1, Motorcyclists' protective clothing against mechanical impact — Part 1: Requirements and test methods for impact protectors

5. ISO 105, Textiles — Tests for colour fastness

Note: The applicable standard can be selected according to the product use and customer trade requirements; standards agreed in the contract take precedence over general standards.

Testing Instruments and Equipment

Impact testing machine (falling weight/pendulum type): The core equipment of the sports protection testing, used to precisely simulate and measure the impact energy. The equipment is usually composed of a release device, guide columns, impact head (flat head, hemispherical head, conical head, etc.), standard headform (metal or wooden) and high-precision acceleration sensors and data acquisition system, which can measure and record the time-acceleration curve during the impact, calculating the peak acceleration and impact duration.

Universal material testing machine: Used to execute the various static mechanical tests such as the tensile, compression, bending, shear and peeling. The equipment provides the precise loading force through the servo motor or hydraulic system, and combined with the high-precision load sensors and extensometers, can plot the complete stress-strain curve, obtaining the key parameters such as the elastic modulus, yield strength, tensile strength and elongation at break of the material.

Environmental test chambers: Including the high and low temperature test chamber, constant temperature and humidity chamber, UV aging test chamber and salt spray test chamber. They are used for the environmental adaptability preconditioning of the protective equipment or their materials. By precisely controlling the conditions such as the temperature, humidity, light and corrosive media, the harsh environments that the product may experience in the actual use are accelerated and simulated, examining its performance attenuation and durability.

Abrasion tester: Such as the Taber abrasion tester, which uses two specific abrasive wheels to friction with the rotating sample plane under the specific load, and after the predetermined number of revolutions, the abrasion resistance is assessed by the sample mass loss or surface appearance change (fuzzing, pilling and wearing through). The Martindale abrasion tester is mainly used for the fabrics, simulating the states such as the flex abrasion and flat abrasion in the actual use.

Biochemical safety testing equipment: Including the pH meter, UV-visible spectrophotometer, atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). These precision instruments are used to accurately determine the contents of the hazardous substances such as the pH value, formaldehyde, extractable heavy metals and prohibited azo dyes in the materials, ensuring that the biosafety of the product meets the regulatory requirements.