Numerous prototypes have been produced, playability and in-field durability tests have been performed, and technology validation completed. Examples include:

• Signed a 6-year contract for implementing Helicoid™ into composite hockey sticks with a global leading producer.

• Completed design and development of a flax based pickleball racket. Production and sales are anticipated to begin in Q3 2023.

• Motorcycle carbon/epoxy helmets: 25% lighter with 6% lower peak acceleration (g-force transmitted to the head).

​Our bio-mimetic Helicoid™ technology enhances toughness and impact strength of composite products and parts in the sports industry.

The patented Helicoid™ layup can easily be applied to existing materials and utilizes current production processes for all products requiring light weight construction, anti-fatigue properties, impact resistance, and energy dissipation including;

• Sticks (ice, field, lacrosse, and others)

• Rackets (Tennis, Pickleball, Padel, Squash, and others)

• Bikes (Rims, Forks, Frames, Cranks, and others)

• Helmets and Body Protective Equipment (Football, Hockey, Baseball, Ski, Motorcycle, and others)

• Golf (Driver Face, Crown, Shafts, and others)

• White Water Kayaks, sail boats, motor yachts, and others

The Helicoid™ technology is well suited to meet the demand of industrial and consumer product applications utilizing composites.

​The industrial market is focused on performance of load-bearing composites, durability, and impact resistance particularly in applications involving the storage of chemicals and gases. The Helicoid™ technology has demonstrated improvements in performance of all of these characteristics.

The Helicoid™ is more durable and impact resistant during transport, installation, and during its functional use.

Numerous consumer products can benefit from the Helicoid™ technology to improve impact resistance and reduce weight. Some applications include, but are not limited to;

• Computer

• Laptops

• Phone Cases

• Small Appliances

• Luggage and others

Helicoid™ Industries has partnered with world leading manufacturers in the defense market to develop our patented Helicoid™ protection solutions to meet the demands of this growing industry. Results have shown that the Helicoid™ technology, forces cracks to propagate helicoidally between fiber layers which creates a much larger surface area per unit crack, hence amplifying the total energy dissipated during impact. This makes our Helicoid™ protection solutions extremely effective against impact and high velocity strikes with lighter & higher protection through improved energy dissipation.

Helicoid™ protection solutions provide a variety of highly customizable options for ballistic applications offering numerous possibilities to tailor our solutions and get improved performance. Helicoid™ benefits in ballistic applications are especially maximized when used in combination with structural materials, such as Carbon or Glass fiber reinforced composite. This delivers a truly multifunctional ballistic shield characterized by high stiffness, strength, and toughness.

Helicoid™ protection solutions include:

• Body Armor (Soft Body and Hard Body Armor)

• Helmets & Shields

• Military Vehicle Armor & Civilian Vehicle Armor

Helicoid Industries Inc. was awarded the Defense Innovation Award at the Tech Connect Defense Summit & Expo in October 2019.

Leading-edge erosion from rain, hail, sand, salt and bird strikes are one of the largest issues facing the wind turbine blade industry. This requires significant maintenance and personnel costs, equipment down-time, reduced energy output, and creates large amounts of waste from damaged and discarded blades.

Based on analysis conducted at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois (Sareen, Sapre & Selig), it has been estimated that a relatively small degree of leading-edge erosion can cause an 80% increase in drag which results in a 5% loss in annual energy production. For many of the moderate-to-heavy erosion cases, this loss in annual energy production can be as high as 25%.

By utilizing a lighter, stronger, more impact resistant leading-edge technology that is easily installed during the initial production phase or during routine maintenance of a blade, would decrease overall costs, reduce repair downtime, allow for larger safety intervals to perform inspection, and increase overall power output.

The Helicoid™ leading-edge protection solution provides tougher blades with higher resistance to impact, erosion and fatigue while maintaining strength and stiffness over the decades of service required. The Helicoid™ leading-edge protection solution is compatible with existing materials and manufacturing processes and can be combined with LEP coating (e.g. PU) to further extend the longevity of the blade.

High build rates manufacturing is necessary to meet the cost and volume requirements of vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) aero structures and to enable ultra-efficient manufacturing of commercial aircraft. Increased automation that combines dry fiber placement of skins and spar elements, with liquid composite molding will offer a significant opportunity for markedly higher build rates and reduced energy consumption. Conventional wing design based on the assembly of several sub-components is cost prohibitive and a “one-piece” wing concept with highly integrated and co-cured/bonded structures will be the most viable solution. To reach the high level of structural/fuel efficiency, along with high damage tolerance and structural integrity, novel micro and meso-structural designs are required. VTOL wings and next-gen dry wings are subjected to complex loading conditions, with highly three-dimensional stress cases (e.g., several pylons attached), high cycle fatigue and flights at low altitudes characterized by a harsh environment (rain, hail, turbulence). To survive and operate safely in such conditions, these aerostructures will require novel microstructural concepts and innovative ply-layup scenarios aiming at delivering tough, yet stiff and strong structures capable of retaining a high structural integrity. This is to overcome the limitations of conventional design philosophies (e.g., inherent brittleness, poor damage tolerance, poor impact resistance) commonly used in aerospace, such as “hard” symmetric and balanced laminates and quasi-isotropic (e.g. 0°/45°/-45°/90°) lamination sequences.

Specifically, of VTOL structures, one of the major limitations in the airframe and wing design is the use of thin laminated structures. Compared to wing skins for commercial aircrafts where the design limiting factor is compression after impact (damage tolerance) strength of the skin (thick laminates), vertical lift wings’ load bearing capability is limited by the local buckling of the skin. This new driving requirement necessitates novel microstructural and layup solutions to increase structural efficiency of the skin, its local buckling load and the overall tolerance of the skin to large deformations experienced during buckling.

Novel microstructural concepts and innovative layup scenarios are also key to increase the structural efficiency of thicker-laminate wing section of VTOL as well as of wing designs of commercial aircrafts. For thicker laminated structures, CAI strength and other damage tolerance requirements along with notch sensitivity are some of the key design drivers. The latest developments and at-scale adoption of automated manufacturing technologies has finally created a viable avenue to deploy at scale novel non-conventional layup scenarios and microstructural solutions which have proven successful (at low TRL) in improving the driving requirements for thicker laminate section. This holds a unique opportunity to realize a new generation of ultra-efficient wing structures which would benefit from the same high-rate manufacturing process explored for VTOL structures.

In addition to wing and airframe structures, areas of application of Helicoid™ include;

• containment casing for jet engine to stop blade-off events,

• structural shields resistant to ballistic and high velocity impacts for interiors,

• nose cone protection,

• fixed leading edge to mitigate bird strike events,

• local wing reinforcements to increase safety and damage tolerance at transition regions and close of structure openings (reduced notch sensitivity).

The investigation of novel microstructural and layup scenarios tailored to meet different requirements for thin and thick-walled wing and other airframe structures hold the potential to deliver a step change in reducing material usage, increasing fuel efficiency of a broad range of aircraft platforms, and enabling the transition to new sustainable technologies such as battery and hydrogen powered aircrafts.

Helicoid™ composite laminates allow significant weight and cost savings due to the reduced use of raw materials while enhancing impact resistance. Lighter weight EV components/parts and overall reduced vehicle weight results in cost savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Helicoid™ parts can be produced at high-rates with additive manufacturing (AFP/ATL), reducing up to 90% material waste generated during production of conventional multi-directional laminates.

The global number of passenger vehicles is forecasted to rise from 1,102 million in 2017 to 1,980 million by 2040 [1], with the transportation sector responsible for about 23% of total global CO2 emissions and road transportation contributing about 72% within that sector [2]. Reducing emissions and dependence on petroleum-based solutions has been the focus of the US Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office. Due to stringent government regulations such as CAFÉ standards of 54.5 mpg by 2025, reducing structural weight of vehicles becomes crucial to achieve such challenging objectives. A 10% reduction in vehicle weight can result in a 6% - 8% fuel economy improvement. Each 1kg weight saved corresponds ~0.13km range increase, which helps promote further adoption of EV vehicles. Structural weight reductions lead to higher energy density, allow for larger battery-packs and hence extends the range of electric vehicles.

Electrification is currently responsible for one of the biggest shifts ever to occur in the automotive industry. The transition from traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) is driven by a range of factors, including environmental concerns, government regulations, and advances in technology. As a result, the auto industry is aggressively developing more sustainable materials that reduce the environmental impact and complete lifecycle footprint of their vehicles.

Most of materials used as automotive structural components for both electric and non-electric vehicles broadly fall into one of two categories 1) low cost / high weight, or 2) high cost / low weight. These design tradeoffs provide automotive OEMs and their suppliers with few options to achieve their ultimate goal which would be low cost / low weight materials.​

Utilizing Helicoid™ laminates and preform parts in components for automobiles will save weight and further lower CO2 emissions by providing a material architecture that provides equal or superior resistance to impacts, crash and fatigue thus lowering the amount of raw materials required to produce the part.

Helicoid™ Industries is working with several Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive sector to develop Helicoid™ material solutions for various components and parts. Helicoid™ is currently being deployed for Electric Vehicle (EV) underbody battery pack protection (or baseplate) systems made of glass-fiber composites. The solution leverages digital engineering, unconventional layup scenarios, biomimicry, advanced multiaxial intelligent weaving, and automated manufacturing to deliver a durable, low-cost, highly engineered automotive part for the commercial and consumer automotive markets. Test results showed that Helicoid™ achieves; 1) +25% higher load-bearing capability under impact (350J); and 2) -20% lower maximum deflection compared to the current commercial solution (at equal weight). Helicoid™ laminates reduced or avoided entirely the occurrence of fiber failure and the laminate retained high structural integrity.

Furthermore, Helicoid™ technology has demonstrated a near doubling the impact fatigue life of a carbon fiber/polypropylene structure compared to a conventional layup. Thus, highlighting the capability of delivering longer use and high durability solutions.