防止受傷的神奇襯墊開始流行
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Pow! Amazing Pain-Protecting Pad Is A Smash Hit
WEARING clothes fitted with thin sheets of a new, light rubbery material can turn you - almost - into a Superhero, preventing serious injury to vital joints and organs.
The invention is called d3o and when the wearer moves, the hundreds of flexible cells of d3o in padding in the clothing also move. The material remains supple enough to allow you to leap, roll and kick with perfect ease.
But when d3o lining is hit by a heavy object or during a fall on hard ground, it tenses up and the force of the blow is absorbed by the material, with the wearer feeling hardly any contact.
Seconds later, the unique material made of “intelligent molecules” returns to its original pliable state. It could save lives as well as change entire industries globally.
d3o is similar to children’s Play-Doh, with the orange sheets of the foam matrix able to be shaped in many ways. It is being incorporated into various things - from protective sportswear, shin pads and motorcycle clothing, to police body armour. Its applications are almost infinite, says its inventor.
Snowboarders can buy d3o-lined woollen beanie hats; US police are trying out gloves with d3o-reinforced knuckles. Sewn into ski suits, the material helped several US racers to shrug off accidents and glide towards gold at the Winter Olympics in Turin. It has been adopted enthusiastically by the four-times Everest climber Kenton Cool and Olympic cyclist Craig McClean.
The creator of d3o, engineer Richard Palmer, is confident enough of its protective properties to give personal demonstrations, showing he comes to no harm. He decided to create d3o in his United Kingdom workshop after “suffering one snowboarding accident too many”.
Palmer added: “The faster the impact, the better the material works. Hopefully, you will never have to use it but if you do receive an impact you will get a much higher level of protection than normal. We don’t like to call it armour, because that implies rigidity. This is a soft, flexible material, like padding, until you hit it.
“It provides the same level of protection performance as a bicycle helmet but it also provides comfort. It’s the first material that combines freedom of movement with impact protection, and it represents a step change in the design philosophy behind these products.”
When Palmer revealed his theory of d3o - technically, an advanced polymer with shear thickening properties - experts laughed at the idea, saying “impossible”. To make it work, he says he was driven to the edge of ruin.
Now, the company believes it could have global takings of two billion pounds after his invention has been praised. Recently, Palmer received the O2 X Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007 in a ceremony in London.
Presenting the award, O2 director Simon Devonshire said: “Richard is an inspiration to anyone with a dream and the drive to realise it.” d3o is being hailed as an invention with the potential to create novel manufacturing opportunities and save lives.
“It has been a battle to get this far,” said Richard Palmer. “I have had to struggle against ignorance of the major players, work out of a back bedroom and beg, borrow and steal to keep development going … but I never doubted that it could be done.”
An engineer by training, it was while studying design at the Royal College of Art that he set up a consultancy to find solutions to problems using new technologies. One quest was to make a protection “shield” that is flexible and unobtrusive. The answer came from using certain types of “thickening liquids”.
“That was the easy bit,” he said. Then followed years of struggle as Palmer searched for seed funding to bring his revolutionary material to market. Before setting up the company in 2001, he sold his house and car, moved into a friend’s spare room. With little money he started the development, calling in help from friends and raising d3o to the point where it was ready for production.
The research took more than 18 months; he met hundreds of potential investors but no one wanted to take a risk on such an ambitious idea. That struggle eventually led him to get capital from the Business Angels group.
The British Business Angels Association is the national trade association for the UK’s Business Angel Networks and the early-stage investment market. It is backed by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR - formerly the Department of Trade & Industry).
Palmer said: “Business angels tend not to require security and, having decided that we needed a substantial investment without having to cede too much day-to-day control, we decided that business angel funding was ideal for our business.
“Armed with our business plan, we contacted the British Business Angels Association who introduced us to several angels. As a small but growing business, our choice of angel was based largely on the sort of practical assistance they were offering. We pitched our proposal to a shortlist of investors to show them the benefits of their involvement. One investor decided to invest after our first meeting.”
d3o now has 20 staff in its Brighton headquarters and key customers such as Quiksilver and Spyder. Palmer estimates that another 30-40 clients could sign on soon. “Every day brings fresh enquiries about potential new applications for d3o from airlines, police forces and car manufacturers.”
What is d3o?
Palmer explains it is a polymer with similar properties to a lump of wet sand, or cornflour and water. When you try to move them quickly, they stick together; d3o is similar to a thick liquid - when shocked, it turns into a solid.
But he warns that d3o-lined clothing and hats are not a substitute for specially designed protective wear. Palmer said: “Our beanie will not give you the same protection as a helmet. But for those snowboarders who choose to wear it, it is a lot better than a normal beanie.”
The development lab team has already produced a range of other products. These include a rigid Frisbee that folds into a soft handkerchief when you catch it, and the world’s first bullet-proof wallpaper - a lightweight covering that absorbs and contains projectile shrapnel generated when a bullet is shot into a building and smashes.
“I know it must sound like we are trying to build a Bat lab here, but I make no apology for that,” said Richard Palmer. “This is what science is supposed to be - something that excites the imagination and inspires the mind.”
一種可以防止受傷的神奇襯墊開始流行
把用新型、輕薄的彈性材料裁減成適合衣服尺寸的薄片襯在穿著的衣服上，可以防止重要關節和器官受到嚴重傷害，讓你變得像個“超級英雄”。
這種新發明材料叫做d3o，當人穿著它行動時，其中數以百計的柔軟細胞就會跟著運動。而且這種材料不會限制你的動作，穿上它你還可以自由、輕松地跑跳、翻滾、踢球。
一旦d3o襯墊受到重物碰撞打擊，或者是重摔在堅硬的地面上，它就會立刻繃緊變硬，材料就會將所受到的力道吸收，這樣穿著者幾乎感覺不到疼痛。
幾秒鐘之后，這種用 “智能分子”制造而成的材料就會恢復原來的柔軟狀態。這是一種可以拯救生命的材料，一種可能改變整個全球工業的材料。
d3o與兒童玩的培樂多（Play-Doh）彩泥相似，是一種泡沫狀的橙色薄片，可以被隨意擠壓成多種形狀。它可以用來制作多種用品，從防護型運動裝、護腿板、摩托車服，到警用防彈衣等等。據它的發明人講，它的適用范圍是不可限量的。
滑雪者可以購買有d3o線紋的羊毛無檐帽，美國警察正在試著在手套里加進d3o，以保護指關節。把這種材料縫在滑雪服里，在都靈冬季奧運會上，美國的幾名滑雪運動員就是穿了這樣的衣服才避免了在意外事故中受傷，并取得了金牌。這種材料受到了曾四次攀上珠穆朗瑪峰的登山者Kenton Cool以及奧運會自行車冠軍克雷格•麥克林（Craig McClean）的熱捧。
d3o的發明者、工程師理查德•帕默（Richard Palmer）對他的防護用品非常有信心，他進行了親身示范，結果顯示他沒有受到任何傷害。在滑雪時多次受到意外傷害之后，他決定在他位于英國的工作室內研發d3o。
帕默補充說：“受到碰撞打擊的速度越快，材料發揮效用的性能越好。我希望你永遠都沒有機會用到它，但是如果一旦遇到了碰撞打擊，你就會得到比通常情況下高出許多倍的保護。我們不想把它稱作‘盔甲’，因為盔甲往往意味著‘僵硬’。而我們提供的是一種柔軟、靈活的材料，就像是襯料。只有在你受到碰撞打擊的時候，它才會變得堅硬起來?！?/P>
“它能起到與自行車頭盔相同的保護作用，但同時它還能提供舒適感。它是能將自由活動與碰撞打擊保護結合在一起的首選材料，而且它還代表著防護用具背后蘊含的設計理念上的改變?！?/P>
在帕默從技術上宣布了他的d3o理論――即在工藝上制造出具有受力變厚性能的高級聚合體之后，專家們對他的想法予以嘲笑，并斷言說這是“不可能的”。為了讓自己的產品能夠發揮應有的作用，他說自己幾乎是走到了崩潰的邊緣。
現在，在得到普遍的認同后，公司認為它在全球的獲益可以達到20億英鎊。最近，在倫敦舉行的“O2 X 2007年度最佳企業人”頒獎禮上，帕默獲此殊榮。
在頒發獎項的時候，O2主管Simon Devonshire說：“對于任何一個懷有夢想的人來說，理查德的成功為他們帶來了啟發，讓他們獲得實現夢想的動力?！庇捎诰哂袨橹圃鞓I帶來全新機會以及挽救生命的潛力，所以作為一項發明創造d3o受到了熱烈地歡迎。
“能夠走到今天，感覺像是經歷了一場戰爭” ，理查德•帕默說到，“我必需要和那些專家們的不屑一顧做斗爭，必需要應對各種規章制度，四處求人、借債、還要偷偷摸摸地，才能保證工作的進行……但是，我從來沒有懷疑過自己的夢想是否會實現?！?/P>
作為一名受過專業培訓的工程師，在他還在皇家藝術學院學習設計的時候，就成立了一家顧問公司，通過使用新技術來提供解決問題的辦法。其中有一個問題是如何使起保護作用的“防護物”能夠既柔軟又隱蔽，答案是使用某種形式的“黏稠液體”。
“這還不是最困難的”，他說。在接下來的數年辛勤工作中，帕默要尋找到資金，將他的具有革命性質的材料推向市場。在2001年成立公司之前，他賣掉自己的房子和車子，把家搬到一位朋友閑置的房子內。在幾乎沒有什么資金的情況下，他開始了研發，經常要求助于朋友。在生產出產品之后成立了d3o公司。
研究共花費了18個月的時間，會見了數百個投資者，但是沒有一個人愿意在這個富有雄心的創意上冒險。但是，經過他的不懈努力，終于獲得了天使投資集團（Business Angels group）的資金。
英國天使投資協會（Business Angels Association）是英國天使投資網絡（Business Angel Networks）和早期投資市場的全國性貿易協會。協會得到了英國商業、企業和改革部（BERR―，前身是英國貿工部）的支持。
帕默說：“天使投資并不要求投資的完全安全性，而我們覺得自己需要的是實實在在的投資，而且我們也不能放棄過多的日常管理權，所以我們認為天使投資提供的資金符合我們的商業運作理念。”
“在有了這樣的商業計劃之后，我們開始接觸英國天使投資協會，他們為我們介紹了幾家天使投資。作為一個在穩步發展的小公司，對于如何選擇天使投資，很大程度上是基于他們能為我們提供什么樣的實際幫助。我們把自己的計劃書提交給挑選出來的投資者，讓他們了解參與我們的事業能獲得的好處。其中有一個投資者在我們見過一次面后就決定為我們投資?！?/P>
在位于布賴頓的總部內，d3o公司有20名員工，它的主要客戶是像Quiksilver和Spyder這樣的品牌。帕默估計很快就會有30到40個客戶與他們簽約?！懊刻於紩行驴蛻魜碓儐杁3o還有什么新的應用范疇，有航空部門、警察部門和汽車制造商。”
什么是d3o？
帕默解釋說這是一種聚合體，類似于潮濕沙子混合著玉米淀粉和水。當你試圖快速地將其移除時，它會緊緊地粘在一起。d3o類似于黏稠的液體，當受到擊打時，就會變得固體般堅硬。
但他也警告，d3o襯里的衣服和帽子不能替代一些專門設計的防護穿戴。帕默說：“我們的無檐帽不能起到頭盔所具有的保護作用。但是對于滑雪者來說，他們選擇戴這種帽子能起到比普通帽子強很多的保護作用?！?/P>
研發實驗室小組還生產出了一系列其他產品，包括：一個堅硬的飛盤，當你接住它的時候就可以把它包在一塊柔軟的手絹里；世界上首個防彈壁紙，一種輕質的遮蓋物，可以吸收和收納子彈射擊到建筑物炸開后產生的彈片。
“我知道，這些聽起來好像我們要建立一個防衛實驗室似的，對此我不會辯解什么?！崩聿榈?#8226;帕默說到。“這正是我們期望科學所能做到的――一些事情會激發我們的想象，啟發我們的智慧。
