LONDON — July 6, 2020 — London tech start up, RHEON LABS, has secured a share of a $60 million grant from the National Football League (NFL) to improve head health in the sport. The NFL program drives innovation to advance head protection and material science to improve the understanding of the biomechanics of head injuries in professional football, protect the players and make the game safer. Rheon Labs has partnered with NFL brand Xenith to develop a unique energy control cell that cushions low-speed impacts, but intelligently strengthens for high-speed impacts. The grant will allow Rheon Labs and Xenith develop this technology further, creating something monumental in moving safety in the game forward.
The NFL announced that they will grant a proposal by Xenith and Rheon Labs for $412,000 towards their submission, Project Orbit.
The grant is part of a comprehensive $60 million effort funded by the NFL to stimulate the development of a new helmet for NFL players that outperforms all helmet models currently worn by NFL players.
Each year, experts, innovators, and helmet manufacturers from around the world compete for grant funding to support the creation of their helmet prototypes. The challenge will culminate in July 2021 with the applicants submitting helmet prototypes for testing in laboratory conditions that represent potentially concussive impacts in the NFL, with an additional award of up to a $1 million.
“This grant marks a significant next step in Rheon’s partnership with Xenith to redefine performance in American Football through energy control,” said Dr. Dan Plant, founder and CTO of Rheon Labs.
Project Orbit aims to build upon the core foundations of the Shadow XR to create something monumental in moving the game of football forward.
About the Partnership
In 2019, Xenith entered a partnership with Rheon Labs to release the Xenith Shadow XR. Together the partnership created a unique energy control cell that cushions low-speed impacts, but intelligently strengthens for high-speed impacts. These RHEON™ cells compress to absorb linear impact and shear to optimally control rotational impact energy, reducing the resulting acceleration of the head.
“Protection in American Football has been in the spotlight for the last few years. Collaborating with Xenith’s team gave us the opportunity to bring our technology to an area that is ready for ground-breaking innovation,” Plant said. “It has been an exciting start to our partnership with Xenith, combining our technology with their expertise in performance and protective gear for the football athlete. This marks the start of our collaboration to truly transform products through energy control over the coming years.”
Rheon is an ingredient technology that can control energy of any amplitude or frequency — from small vibrations to life-threatening single impacts. At the core of the technology is an active polymer that intelligently strengthens in response to changes in movement. The novel technology has the potential to make truly game changing advancements in helmet performance through energy control.
Posted July 7, 2020
Source: Rheon Labs
