Military ACH DOT approved?

[texasm203]

So, my brother has been wearing his ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) on base for a couple weeks now. I asked him how he gets away with it, because DOD requires long sleeves and pants, reflective equipment, and helmet to ride on base. He tells me that the ACH has been DOT approved for motorcycle use. I tried looking it up, but I can find nothing on the ACH being DOT approved, and it obviously has no DOT stamp on it. Not to mention that you would plain silly wearing that thing. Anybody else heard anything on this?

[idmtchris]

There is no way that helmet is DOT approved. It is designed to reduce penetration injury and is not designed for impact resistance. It has no high density foam padding, only an adustable head harness so it won't flop around. The chin strap only has snaps, so it can pop off pretty easisly.

EDIT:

Actually I did some further reading. The did away with the harness for some adjustable padding, but it is not going to provide the same level of protection as high density foam. His post may be confused because there is a company that makes replica helmets that are DOT approved.

[mkelley]

http://media.msanet.com/NA/USA/Balli...s/10060727.pdf
Pg 2 clearly states not DOT approved.

[texasm203]

I figured that wasn't right, but apparently the MPs don't care, nor the local LE. I reffered him to the page that comes with the helmets, but he brought up the point that they are dated 2006, and the ACH was supposedly approved recently. Either way, it doesn't make since. The ACH is designed to stop penetration of large shrapnel and ricochet bullets, not absorb impact from asphalt. Although mine has kept a bump off my head a few times.

[ozyran440]

My problem with that would be the internal design of the helmet. A motorcycle helmet has the hard shell, followed by a densely packed energy-absorbing foam, followed by a softer padding. The ACH seems to go straight from the hard outer shell to the soft interior padding with no energy absorbing foam.

In short, instead of densely packed foam to absorb the energy, it goes straight into his skull.

Hey, it's his head, but I'd think he'd at least want to protect it. To each their own I guess.

[ozyran440]

Whoops, double post.

[Laramy]

The ACH is the first military helmet designed to have some level of impact protection, but it is not enough for motorcycle use.

The ACH will only provide impact protection at velocities up to but not over 10 fps. Motorcycle use requires the ability to protect to 20 fps. It should protect at speeds up to 25 mph, like you would go on base. Of note, the padding is very temprature sensitive, and has reduced shock absorption at extremes of cold and heat. The test report for the ACH suggests that improved interior padding would raise the helmet to DOT levels of protection.

For the full report: http://www.angel7industries.com/USAARL2005-12.pdf