Making its debut this year, the MSA Cairns® 1836 Fire Helmet is the first new traditional-style fire helmet from MSA Safety in 20 years.
Developing and engineering one of the lightest weight traditional-style fire helmets that meets the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards is a years-long process.
With insights from MSA Safety Principal Engineer David Losos and MSA Safety Senior Staff Engineer Kevin Ketterer, this article talks about the engineering and design process for the Cairns 1836 Fire Helmet and some of the innovate technologies MSA Safety used for the first time in developing the helmet.
They explore the design features that include the patent-pending slide-lock system, which eliminates the need for any special tools to disassemble the helmet, ultimately enabling quicker and easier maintenance, as well as the helmet being adaptable to a wide range of head sizes fitting greater than 95 percent of firefighters, based on National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) head size test data.
KK: This helmet project started in the late 2010s, around 2017, but really picked up in 2021.
But this all started with an idea about how we wanted the helmet to come apart.
First looking at the helmet shell, it gave us an idea of the size and somewhat shape of the helmet, and then we started to work on the shell design.
We started with a half-inch lower ride height than our existing helmet shell plus eight ribs in order to keep the traditional look.
Then moving inward, we started designing the impact protection, foam liner, plastic liner, and suspension, leading us to look at the helmet weight, and we moved on from there.
We were looking for a design that could be disassembled and reassembled without the need for a screwdriver.
So, we asked, ‘What if we had one piece that you can just slide, locked it in and out? What if we eliminated the screws and had posts on each side of the helmet?’ The idea just came into our heads, and we took that concept, started to think about what it looked like, and then started to engineer it.
DL: This helmet was also the first time we incorporated simulation technology into the design and manufacturing process for a helmet.
It’s really an innovative approach to bringing technology that’s widely been used in the automotive industry, for example, and scaling it into another industry.
This simulation technology gave us an opportunity to optimize the use of our proven materials as we worked to complete the design.
DL: Not only did it help with the design, but we were able to run more simulations and do more testing without making waste during the prototyping.
We had material suppliers send us virtual material models that we could test, and we could continue to run simulations to get parts as close to what we believed we needed to build the helmet.
KK: Before virtual testing was available to supplement our design process, we’d spend a lot of time back and forth between making parts, assembling parts, testing them, going back and forth between tooling, redesigning parts, and the process would start all over if we found out we needed something new.
Adding virtual testing helped streamline the process.
What we were developing in the simulation and giving the best first shot to the tooling team was pretty close to nailing what we needed for the final design.
DL: We iterated a lot of new designs and tests to develop this helmet, and the end result is truly a cutting-edge product.
We pushed our boundaries, but everyone working together from engineering to manufacturing to tooling got us to what we have today with the helmet.
KK: What we were told was near impossible with the helmet wasn’t impossible after all.
DL: The slide-lock system eliminates the need for a screwdriver or any special tools to disassemble the helmet.
When the lock is released, the helmet shell detaches from the impact cap, ultimately enabling quicker and easier maintenance.
During our Voice of Customer (VOC) activities throughout all phases of this design process, we saw an opportunity toward enhanced cleanability for products in the fire service.
But we recognize that cleanable can mean something different to each fire department because not everyone cleans their fire helmets equivalently.
But what was common was that firefighters wanted a helmet that was easier to disassemble, easier to reassemble, and able to withstand the different cleaning processes we encountered.
We really focused on our VOC process, getting feedback about cleaning, incorporating that into the design, because to a significant extent, these products and solutions are developed with the help of firefighters.
So, we figured, if we made it easy to disassemble and reassemble according to them, it can help enhance the cleaning capabilities.
DL: MSA Safety Staff Engineer Matthew Kuhn, who was also on the core design team, found a NIOSH study looking at the anthropometric head sizes of males and females.
That gave us great data to start with.
We were able to incorporate the data set into our design process.
KK: VOC also played a huge role in this process, too.
During the wear trials, we had many female firefighters in Cairns 1836 prototype helmets.
We weren’t getting the size range we wanted for those firefighters, and after going through studies, we made changes, developed new components for the 1836 helmet, and after those changes, we had achieved a more secure fit throughout a larger head size range for all the firefighters.
DL: The customer interactions are instrumental to what we do.
We have firefighters on our team, we have access to a diverse group of firefighters from different departments, and it’s easier to get data and information straight from the source.
It’s about meeting the expectations of the fire service because maintaining customer safety is a key part of our mission as a company.
