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.”

一种可以防止受伤的神奇衬垫开始流行

把用新型、轻薄的弹性材料裁减成适合衣服尺寸的薄片衬在穿着的衣服上，可以防止重要关节和器官受到严重伤害，让你变得像个“超级英雄”。

这种新发明材料叫做d3o，当人穿着它行动时，其中数以百计的柔软细胞就会跟着运动。而且这种材料不会限制你的动作，穿上它你还可以自由、轻松地跑跳、翻滚、踢球。

一旦d3o衬垫受到重物碰撞打击，或者是重摔在坚硬的地面上，它就会立刻绷紧变硬，材料就会将所受到的力道吸收，这样穿着者几乎感觉不到疼痛。

几秒钟之后，这种用 “智能分子”制造而成的材料就会恢复原来的柔软状态。这是一种可以拯救生命的材料，一种可能改变整个全球工业的材料。

d3o与儿童玩的培乐多（Play-Doh）彩泥相似，是一种泡沫状的橙色薄片，可以被随意挤压成多种形状。它可以用来制作多种用品，从防护型运动装、护腿板、摩托车服，到警用防弹衣等等。据它的发明人讲，它的适用范围是不可限量的。

滑雪者可以购买有d3o线纹的羊毛无檐帽，美国警察正在试着在手套里加进d3o，以保护指关节。把这种材料缝在滑雪服里，在都灵冬季奥运会上，美国的几名滑雪运动员就是穿了这样的衣服才避免了在意外事故中受伤，并取得了金牌。这种材料受到了曾四次攀上珠穆朗玛峰的登山者Kenton Cool以及奥运会自行车冠军克雷格•麦克林（Craig McClean）的热捧。

d3o的发明者、工程师理查德•帕默（Richard Palmer）对他的防护用品非常有信心，他进行了亲身示范，结果显示他没有受到任何伤害。在滑雪时多次受到意外伤害之后，他决定在他位于英国的工作室内研发d3o。

帕默补充说：“受到碰撞打击的速度越快，材料发挥效用的性能越好。我希望你永远都没有机会用到它，但是如果一旦遇到了碰撞打击，你就会得到比通常情况下高出许多倍的保护。我们不想把它称作‘盔甲’，因为盔甲往往意味着‘僵硬’。而我们提供的是一种柔软、灵活的材料，就像是衬料。只有在你受到碰撞打击的时候，它才会变得坚硬起来。”

“它能起到与自行车头盔相同的保护作用，但同时它还能提供舒适感。它是能将自由活动与碰撞打击保护结合在一起的首选材料，而且它还代表着防护用具背后蕴含的设计理念上的改变。”

在帕默从技术上宣布了他的d3o理论――即在工艺上制造出具有受力变厚性能的高级聚合体之后，专家们对他的想法予以嘲笑，并断言说这是“不可能的”。为了让自己的产品能够发挥应有的作用，他说自己几乎是走到了崩溃的边缘。

现在，在得到普遍的认同后，公司认为它在全球的获益可以达到20亿英镑。最近，在伦敦举行的“O2 X 2007年度最佳企业人”颁奖礼上，帕默获此殊荣。

在颁发奖项的时候，O2主管Simon Devonshire说：“对于任何一个怀有梦想的人来说，理查德的成功为他们带来了启发，让他们获得实现梦想的动力。”由于具有为制造业带来全新机会以及挽救生命的潜力，所以作为一项发明创造d3o受到了热烈地欢迎。

“能够走到今天，感觉像是经历了一场战争” ，理查德•帕默说到，“我必需要和那些专家们的不屑一顾做斗争，必需要应对各种规章制度，四处求人、借债、还要偷偷摸摸地，才能保证工作的进行……但是，我从来没有怀疑过自己的梦想是否会实现。”

作为一名受过专业培训的工程师，在他还在皇家艺术学院学习设计的时候，就成立了一家顾问公司，通过使用新技术来提供解决问题的办法。其中有一个问题是如何使起保护作用的“防护物”能够既柔软又隐蔽，答案是使用某种形式的“黏稠液体”。

“这还不是最困难的”，他说。在接下来的数年辛勤工作中，帕默要寻找到资金，将他的具有革命性质的材料推向市场。在2001年成立公司之前，他卖掉自己的房子和车子，把家搬到一位朋友闲置的房子内。在几乎没有什么资金的情况下，他开始了研发，经常要求助于朋友。在生产出产品之后成立了d3o公司。

研究共花费了18个月的时间，会见了数百个投资者，但是没有一个人愿意在这个富有雄心的创意上冒险。但是，经过他的不懈努力，终于获得了天使投资集团（Business Angels group）的资金。

英国天使投资协会（Business Angels Association）是英国天使投资网络（Business Angel Networks）和早期投资市场的全国性贸易协会。协会得到了英国商业、企业和改革部（BERR―，前身是英国贸工部）的支持。

帕默说：“天使投资并不要求投资的完全安全性，而我们觉得自己需要的是实实在在的投资，而且我们也不能放弃过多的日常管理权，所以我们认为天使投资提供的资金符合我们的商业运作理念。”

“在有了这样的商业计划之后，我们开始接触英国天使投资协会，他们为我们介绍了几家天使投资。作为一个在稳步发展的小公司，对于如何选择天使投资，很大程度上是基于他们能为我们提供什么样的实际帮助。我们把自己的计划书提交给挑选出来的投资者，让他们了解参与我们的事业能获得的好处。其中有一个投资者在我们见过一次面后就决定为我们投资。”

在位于布赖顿的总部内，d3o公司有20名员工，它的主要客户是像Quiksilver和Spyder这样的品牌。帕默估计很快就会有30到40个客户与他们签约。“每天都会有新客户来询问d3o还有什么新的应用范畴，有航空部门、警察部门和汽车制造商。”

什么是d3o？
帕默解释说这是一种聚合体，类似于潮湿沙子混合着玉米淀粉和水。当你试图快速地将其移除时，它会紧紧地粘在一起。d3o类似于黏稠的液体，当受到击打时，就会变得固体般坚硬。

但他也警告，d3o衬里的衣服和帽子不能替代一些专门设计的防护穿戴。帕默说：“我们的无檐帽不能起到头盔所具有的保护作用。但是对于滑雪者来说，他们选择戴这种帽子能起到比普通帽子强很多的保护作用。”

研发实验室小组还生产出了一系列其他产品，包括：一个坚硬的飞盘，当你接住它的时候就可以把它包在一块柔软的手绢里；世界上首个防弹壁纸，一种轻质的遮盖物，可以吸收和收纳子弹射击到建筑物炸开后产生的弹片。

“我知道，这些听起来好像我们要建立一个防卫实验室似的，对此我不会辩解什么。”理查德•帕默说到。“这正是我们期望科学所能做到的――一些事情会激发我们的想象，启发我们的智慧。