Twenty years ago, the average patrol officer would not have been issued a ballistic helmet. Those times — and those threats — have changed. While a SWAT or mobile field force team member is still the primary user, today most patrol-level officers have a protective helmet in a go-bag, at the ready for a scenario that requires a higher level of protection, like an active shooter, a riot or an ambush.
The available protective accessories have also improved in sophistication and application. A mission may require an officer to attach a face shield or visor, a communications device (that needs clear audio), night-vision goggles, lights or even IR beacons for stealth.
But when a fastener penetrates ballistic material to secure a retention system, accessory rail or night-vision mount, it can create a potential weak point around that penetration, extending up to about 1.5 inches depending on the helmet’s construction and impact conditions.
The risk becomes especially relevant if an impact occurs at or near one of those penetrations.
Ballistic helmets are like insurance — you hope you never need it, but you’re sure grateful you have it when you do.
For Team Wendy, the design goal is to preserve as much uninterrupted ballistic material as possible while still giving officers the mounting points they need.
No need to sacrifice protection for convenience
“When you look at the ballistic industry, both domestically and across the globe, virtually all the helmets out there use a retention system — the strap system that attaches to the ballistic shell — and secure it with a bolt that penetrates the ballistic material,” said Daron Shank, helmet product category director for Team Wendy, an Avon Technologies company.
“It’s kind of like a hole in your jeans. The area around that hole can tear pretty easily. Ballistic helmets are very similar,” he said. “If the area around that bolt is compromised, that’s a problem.”
For officers who depend on rails, retention hardware and night-vision shrouds to configure a helmet for their mission, those attachment points can create areas of increased stress on the shell.
How no-thru-hole design works
Within Team Wendy’s Ceradyne ballistic shell technology, seamless shell construction and no-thru-hole design are two distinct features. Shank explained that seamless shell construction refers to how the shell itself is formed, preserving fiber continuity by using a continuous piece of polyethylene rather than cut-and-overlapped sections. No-thru-hole design separately addresses attachment: rails and mounts are mechanically fastened without a bolt passing through the ballistic material.
“The intent is to achieve optimal ballistic integrity across the full helmet,” he said.
Avoiding shell penetrations can also be achieved through adhesive mounting, however, Team Wendy has observed that exposure to hot or cold conditions can weaken those bonds over time, which is why it favors mechanically fastened rails and mounts.
Weight was another consideration behind the approach. Shank noted that Team Wendy’s no-thru-hole design originated in response to a U.S. Army requirement to increase ballistic coverage without increasing bulk. “These soldiers carry a lot of weight, so any bit they can leave off goes a long way in their missions,” he explained.
What makes Team Wendy’s ballistic lineup different
The commitment to structural integrity runs through Team Wendy’s ballistic lineup. The company designs and manufactures both the shell and the internal pad system in-house – a rarity, Shank said, in an industry where most competitors buy one piece and simply configure it.
Team Wendy builds its shells from polyethylene, a material Shank says still has room to improve, unlike some alternatives. “We only work with polyethylene because it’s one of the strongest materials in the world, and the material science keeps getting better. Aramid performance reached its pinnacle about 20 years ago. Manufacturers can’t get any more performance out of it.”
The material has to flex on impact the same way a modern car is engineered to crumple, Shank explained. “Thirty years ago, auto manufacturers built cars with huge, rigid front ends that didn’t absorb energy and performed terribly in crash tests. Now they’re built shorter, to give and absorb that energy. Helmets work the same way. When a round hits the helmet, you want it to bend and absorb that energy to catch the round. If it’s too rigid, the round will just penetrate the material.”
Standing behind the product
The company offers a warranty well beyond the industry standard. “A few of our ballistic helmets carry a 10-year industry-leading warranty,” said Shank. “Typical is five years, but we stand behind our product.”
The no-thru-hole design is used across all Team Wendy ballistic helmet platforms, including the EPIC Specialist and RIFLETECH. As part of Ceradyne ballistic shell technology, it works alongside the CAM FIT retention system for secure, stable and comfortable wear.
The EPIC series, Shank noted, “brings 15 percent better performance and 15 percent lighter weight than a legacy [Aramid] helmet, at only a fraction more cost, plus more comfort.”
Team Wendy leans heavily on feedback from the officers, soldiers and search-and-rescue personnel who actually wear its gear and tests that performance in front of the people who wear it. Through its Headstrong program, the company sends product specialists directly to departments for live ballistic demonstrations. The department’s own officer conducts the shoot using the department’s own weapons and ammunition, giving participants the opportunity to evaluate the helmet’s performance under conditions they control.
“It’s an education piece of what the helmet can do,” Shank said. “The threats keep evolving, so we can’t ever say, ‘This is the helmet, we’re good for five years.’ We have to stay nimble and keep translating that material science into performance.”
Where the mission comes from
Team Wendy was founded in 1997 and named for Wendy Moore, whose traumatic brain injury set the company’s original focus on head protection. That history still shows in the culture Shank describes today.
Inside Team Wendy’s facility is a “save board” — a wall recognizing officers whose lives were protected by the company’s ballistic helmet so they could live to serve another day.
Team Wendy periodically brings some of those people in to walk the factory floor and meet the employees who build the products they wore.
“You just see it in the employees’ eyes. They realize at that moment they’re not just making a widget — they’re really making an impact,” Shank said. “We never hope anybody gets hit with our helmet. But if they do, hopefully they end up on our saves wall. That’s our
mission.”
For more information, visit Team Wendy.
