Tag: cone-head

They represent the spoils of skunkworks and the rigours of R&D laboratories. They embody the passions of earnest inventors and the dreams of budding business builders. They are the products of industries old and new, from organisations both large and small. They're innovative, Australian and they're changing the world, one idea at a time. Yes, it's time to reveal the SMART 100, 2010.

In 2009, inventor Don Morgan was a finalist in Anthill’s Smart 100 competition. However, as he recounts in this passionate plea for change, his quest for grant funding at home has forced him to take his innovation elsewhere.

This innovation initially came to life when, in 1992, I picked up my daughter's helmet. I pressed my thumb into the foam liner of the helmet and I realised I couldn’t leave an impression in the foam. The foam liner was as hard as a brick. This incident reminded me of what I had learned as a researcher of helmets during the 1980s, that the foam liners in helmets were too hard and stiff and didn’t effectively absorb an impact force. It was in 1993 I thought of embedding low-density cones within the thickness of the hard foam liner.