secondary benefit to the masks.
Changing the Game? Cast stainless steel is ductile, and when not heat-treated it is still tough. To demonstrate that, Singer said
he’s pulled the masks apart and pushed them together, bending and flexing them to show their toughness. They don’t snap and shatter and,
most crucially, Pizzuti and Singer say they dissipate energy more effi- ciently than the traditional welded mask, and this could lower concus- sions and make football safer. “As we started to talk about this
project we theorized that one singular piece of steel would absorb energy better than multiple pieces that were welded together,” Pizzuti said. Singer said that as the energy goes
through all of the individual elements of the mask, it will hit an intersec- tion that slows it down and splits it. So by the time that energy gets to the helmet, Singer said, its impact is less because it’s taken more time to reach the head of the wearer. “We believe that’s happening
because if you were to lay it out flat it’s all one plane and then it’s curved like wrapping it around a soccer ball,” Singer said. “Whereas the wire
Investment casting is used to produce the face masks.
masks, if you were to lay it, bend it flat and lay it down on a flat table you would see some wires are touching the table and then other wires that are stacked on top of it. Tat energy is not being transferred to those other elements. It’s bypass- ing those intersections and going more directly straighter and faster to the helmet, and therefore faster to the head of the wearer.” During standard drop testing, the masks were dropped five times from
a height of 12-15 ft. and, in Pizzuti’s words, they wanted to “beat the snot out of them.” “On virtually every drop of
the five drops, the investment cast mask scored anywhere from 25-30 percent lower on the sever- ity index,” Pizzuti said. “Lower is better, and it means less energy is being transferred to the head and ultimately the brain of the wearer.” Tis spring, the masks took a
step towards seeing the field in the NFL and college football when two models achieved certification from the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). Tey were expected to hit the market in June, and samples have been sent to some collegiate and professional teams. “We should see them on the
field this year,” Pizzuti said. Though the NFL and NCAA
have concerns the masks are over- built–a classification that would prohibit their use–Singer hopes the institutions will see the potential benefits of the cast masks designed by Pizzuti and cast by Acra Cast. “Tings have to be done differ-
John Pizzuti found the investment casting process after getting advice from his mother.
ently and they have to embrace new technologies and new methods of manufacturing,” Singer said. Tat sounds like something Pamela Pizzuti would say.
July 2016 MODERN CASTING | 25
Photo courtesy of Richard Singer.
Photo courtesy of Richard Singer.
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