Flexmeter TPE wrist guard puts snowboarder injuries on ice
Canadian Plastics
A broken is wrist is by far the most common snowboarding injury, but traditional wrist guards haven't been particularly effective....
A broken is wrist is by far the most common snowboarding injury, but traditional wrist guards haven’t been particularly effective.
That’s because snowboarders have had no choice but to wear the short wrist protectors designed for skateboarders, which didn’t offer them proper protection during falls.
Now they have another option.
Skimeter, a French sports equipment company, has developed the Flexmeter wrist guard designed specifically for snowboarders.
The backbone of the Flexmeter is made from a grade of DuPont’s Hytrel thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), and for added comfort, the TPE is cushioned against the skin with Dupont’s Lycra.
“Snowboarders’ broken wrists always occur higher up on the arm, because (of) the way they are moving and the forces that occur when they fall,” Dr. Marc-Herve Binet, the designer of Flexmeter and a consultant to Skimeter, explained. “Hytrel is strong enough to limit flexion at the wrist and a good way up the arm without being too stiff. It allows the wearer to bend his or her wrist, but in the case of impact, the hyperflexion that would result in a broken wrist is effectively prevented”.
E.I. du Pont Canada Co,; www.dupont.com; 800-263-3943
