Material Comparisons Using Free Motion Head (FMH) Impact and Alternative Test Method

Recent changes to the FMVSS 201 require the use of a Free Motion Headform (FMH) to meet a HIC(d) value of 1000. As the FMH impacter test involves the use of a featureless Hybrid III headform, this head must relax for three hours after each impact to allow the skin to normalize. This severely limits the amount of tests that one can perform in a given period of time. This paper will discuss various test methods that do not require a relaxation period between impacts that correlate to the FMH impacter test.