One of football's biggest names turns to 3D scanning tech for safer helmets

Helmets already make the violent game of football safer, but one of the biggest equipment makers in the sport is making them even better. It's developed a new process to create helmets that could play a role in preventing the traumatic head injuries that currently plague the game and threaten its future.

Riddell, the company behind the helmets worn by around 60 percent of NFL players, will use a new 3D head-scanning process on each player who wears its new Precision Fit headgear. To be sure there are other innovations in helmet tech, but unlike just about every other helmet design on the market, which use inflatable pads that are adjusted manually by handheld air pumps, the inside of the Precision Fit models have a custom-fit liner system made of "energy managing materials" built according to the personalized scan data of each player's head.  Read more...