Soft Helmet & Air Warming Balaclava柔軟的安全帽 & 溫暖呼吸的頭套

I was reading some old articles on snowbliss.com and came across these two interesting products: RibCap and Psolar BX Balaclava.

RibCap is a piece of headgear; it’s soft and wears comfortably but could act as a helmet. RibCap uses a special material called d3o which consists of free-moving molecules: when your body moves slowly, they move with you, and therefore you should feel the material soft and flexible. However, when d3o encounters impact, the molecules lock together to absorb the shock.

I am intrigued by this product since I am still looking for a ski helmet. Although the testimony snowbliss.com quotes lowers my doubt, I think I’ll stick with traditional hard-shell ones for now after reading the disclaimer from the official website of RibCap: “The ribcap doesn’t offer a complete head protection and doesn’t comply with any standards established for protective headgear like helmets.”

Psolar BX Balaclava and other Psolar products use a heat exchange module called QXtec®. This module warms up the cold air you inhale by forcing a phase change from vapor to liquid, and it could raise the temperature of the air from the freezing point up to over 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here is a quote from their website describing how QXtex works: “a QXtec module that is made of desiccant coated plastic. The desiccant grabs the moisture from the air, forcing a phase change from vapor to liquid. This phase change releases heat that is added to the natural heat of exhalation, warming the plastic. This warmth is transferred to the air as it is inhaled.”


這幾天翻閱一些 snowbliss.com 的舊文章，逛到這兩個有趣的產品：RibCap和Psolar BX頭套。

RibCap可以說是一頂帽子，柔軟，戴起來頗舒服，卻在必要時刻，可以成為一頂安全帽。這是由於其使用一種特殊的材質，叫做d3o。這個材質包含許多自由活動的分子，平常運動的時候，分子自由地活動，這個材質讓人感覺柔軟且有彈性。當遇到衝擊的時候，這些分子就會鍵結起來，將衝擊吸收掉，保護你的身體部位。

是項相當有趣的產品，尤其我還在尋覓一頂適合的安全帽。雖然說snowbliss.com上引用的真人證詞多少減低了我的疑慮，不過閱讀了RibCap官方網站的聲明之後：「該項產品無法提供完整的頭部保護，也沒有經過任何的安全帽檢定」，我想目前我還是乖乖地在傳統的安全帽系列中挑一頂吧。

Psolar BX頭套和其他Psolar的產品使用一個叫做QXtec的熱轉換模組。這個模組藉由，強迫蒸氣回歸到液態水這個過程的發生，來加熱將要由口鼻吸進來的空氣。可以將零度的冷空氣，加熱到攝氏24度。

以下是從其官方網站摘來的QXtec的應用原理：「QXtec模組鑲有一層會從空氣中攫取水分的材質，之後強迫蒸氣變態為液態。這個過程會釋放熱，與人體呼氣所釋放的熱合作，溫暖QXtec模組中的塑膠成分，傳導到呼吸進來的氣體上。」