is a Japanese company that designs and manufactures

motorcycle helmet A motorcycle helmet is a type of helmet used by motorcycle riders. Motorcycle helmets contribute to motorcycle safety by protecting the rider's head in the event of an impact. They reduce the risk of head injury by 69% and the risk of death by 42% ...

s and other helmets for motorsports. The business has roots from the turn of the century involving

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

production, followed by military headgear from 1930 onwards, industrial safety helmets after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and finally motorcycle helmets from 1952 onward.The story of Arai: Thinking ahead. Interview with Michio Arai by Laurent Benchana. ''Motorcycle Sport & Leisure'', January 2004, pp.062–067. Accessed 10 January 2020

History

Arai's origins can be traced back to the production of

kepi The kepi ( ) is a cap with a flat circular top and a peak, or visor. In English, the term is a loanword of french: képi, itself a re-spelled version of the gsw, Käppi, a diminutive form of , meaning "cap". In Europe, this headgear is most ...

-style caps by Yuichiro Arai in 1900. His son, Hirotake Arai (who succeeded his father in 1930), a keen

motorcyclist Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small- displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in the most populous c ...

, was approached to create a new design of sun-barrier caps for the growing

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, which was later involved in the 1934 invasion of China, the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

, and World War II. After production was stopped during WWII, Hirotake Arai created the Arai Sewing Machine Company, which produced and exported

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

s and

overalls Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

occupied Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United State ...

in the late 1940s. When Japanese construction industry unions made protective headwear compulsory, Arai produced safety helmets for construction workers, made from a

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on n ...

outer shell lined with cork (which has since been substituted with expanded polystyrene). He wore an industrial safety helmet when riding his motorcycle and established a new business, the Arai Hirotake Shoten Co. Ltd. After being awarded a

Japanese Industrial Standards are the standards used for industrial activities in Japan, coordinated by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) and published by the Japanese Standards Association (JSA). The JISC is composed of many nationwide committees and pla ...

license in 1950, Arai began manufacturing and selling the first Japanese motorcycling helmets, designated H.A. after his initials.HA/Arai helmet recall
U.S. Department of Transportation (facsimile legal documents), August 1977 (at Google Books). Retrieved 10 January 2020

Expansion

Hirotake Arai's son Michio had spent time in the United States, recognizing a potential market for their helmets (which was dominated by

Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

at the time). Arai was approached by

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

-based motorsport accessory retailer Roger Weston, who later managed the Arai Helmet Americas division, with a goal to recruit an American racer from the

Daytona 200 The Daytona 200 is an annual motorcycle road racing competition held in early spring at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The race was founded in 1937 when it was sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Associati ...

to wear an Arai helmet. Despite approaching top American racers and with hopes of Dave Aldana agreeing, it was not until 1978 that Ted Boody Jr. became the first official Arai racer outside of Japan (followed by Freddie Spencer, the first non-Japanese Arai-contracted Grand Prix rider). In 1983, Dutch-Belgian former motorcycle road racer Ferry Brouwer formulated a business plan to bring Arai helmets to Continental Europe, creating the Dutch Arai Europe division.

Technical aspects

Arai's helmets are hand-built, with each fibre-reinforced plastic shell incorporating multiple reinforcing parts laid onto a round base (known as a "bird's nest"). Shells are assembled inside a concave metal mould, moulded using a process pioneered by Arai, inspected, and cured in a

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

before further processing and inspection.

Safety

All Arai helmets sold in the US are made to meet or exceed

Snell Memorial Foundation The Snell Memorial Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to provide a high quality standard of safety for helmets. Founded in 1957, the foundation is named after William "Pete" Snell, a popular sports car racer who died in 1956 of head ...

safety standards. A number of Arai helmets meet FIA requirements for

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

and other motorsports.

Arai Quantic and the new ECE 22.06 standard

For many years the safety standard that applied to motorcycle helmets sold in Europe had been ECE 22-05. The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) at the United Nations developed this testing for helmet safety, UN Regulation 22. It came into force in 1982 as ECE 22-02. The fifth amendment, 22-05, took effect from March 2005. The standard mandated numerous tests in a whole host of areas: the shell, the strap, the visor, the field of vision, and so on. But perhaps the most crucial test measured a helmet's ability to absorb the energy of an impact. Unchanged since 2005, the United Nations eventually updated the standard to the newer ECE 22.06. One of the criticisms of the ECE 22-05 was that the impacts were always directed at the same five points on the helmet. Under ECE 22-06, the testers randomly choose three further test points from a selection of 12. And this is important because, under the old system, it was theoretically possible for manufacturers to reinforce their helmets in the known areas. 22-06 also measures what is known as angled impacts. It is now accepted that such blows can cause severe brain injuries as the brain potentially rotates violently inside the skull, causing tears in the brain's structure. And so 22-06 tests incorporate impacts against an anvil with a 45-degree angle. Extra sensors measure the twisting forces transmitted through the helmet to the rider's head. It was expected that under this particular test, rounder, smoother shells would perform better, and the first helmet to pass the new ECE 22.06 test was an Arai: the Quantic.

Accolades

From 1999 to 2011, Arai was ranked first in customer satisfaction in all thirteen annual J. D. Power and Associates Motorcycle Helmet Satisfaction studies.

Gallery

File:Arai Helmet Kit.jpg, Arai XD helmet kit File:Arai Astro DSC00428.JPG, Arai Astro helmet File:Micheal Fitzgerald Arai Racing Helmet.jpg, Custom-painted Arai GP5 helmet File:Bjorn-helmet.jpg,

Björn Wirdheim Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim (born 4 April 1980) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing karts, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to ...

wearing an Arai helmet

References

External links

* {{Sports equipment brands Helmet manufacturers Companies based in Saitama Prefecture Manufacturing companies of Japan Clothing companies established in 1926 Hat companies Sporting goods manufacturers of Japan Defunct defense companies of Japan Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 1926