Take an engineer and creative designer who's also an innovator, add a passion for snowboarding, and the result? Richard Palmer, chief executive of d3o, who's come up with a novel way of giving extreme sports enthusiasts protection while retaining flexibility and freedom of movement.

Palmer believes his multi-disciplinary background has helped him to approach scientific challenges creatively.

Palmer originally studied mechanical engineering, but felt limited by the traditional scientific approach he encountered at university. He says, "I was frustrated at being surrounded by linear thinking. I just upped roots and decided that I wanted to look at the world in a completely fresh way." So he enrolled at London's Royal College of Arts to study design.

Creative thinking

This multi-disciplinary background, which allowed him to combine creative inspiration with scientific processes, was to form the cornerstone of his future thinking.

He explains, "I think the combination of being able to apply analysis and rigor, plus being able to open up the box and say, Let's just start again, forget the past and only focus on the future, is a very powerful combination."

Following his studies, Palmer began his career at DuPont, then set up an innovation design consultancy where he began to think about the ideas which would later form the basis of d3o's research. Eventually, he decided to stop consulting, sold his house, established the d3o Lab and set out to turn his dreams into reality.

At their laboratory in Hove, England, Palmer's team developed a textured material that turns hard on impact. It can be incorporated into protective clothing and gives sports enthusiasts more freedom of movement than traditional protection. Palmer says, "It's a very soft, flexible material, it's washable. It can be used anywhere where a level of shock absorption is needed without the restriction of conventional bulky rigid plastic or stiff foams."

Unique molecular bond

The chemistry behind d3o relies on molecules that are weakly bound in their normal state but lock together on impact. Palmer explains, "d3o has within it a unique molecular bond, which is sensitive to the rate at which you move it. For example if a snowboarder hits the ground hard, the molecular bond locks instantaneously and absorbs the impact energy, then relaxes again ready for the next impact."

The technology was seized with enthusiasm by extreme sports industries, and products containing d3o have already been developed, including racing suits for the U.S. and Canadian Olympic ski team made by ski wear company Spyder; protective hats made by Ribcap; shoes made by Globe; and goalkeeping gloves and shinpads made by Sells.

Into outer space?

But Palmer isn't one to typecast his invention, and sees the future of d3o in a far wider range of applications. He says, "It's a material that has application in the automotive industry and other industries, the military, in aerospace, even in outer space."

Palmer still lectures on innovation, and at d3o, he has created a working environment that fosters creative thinking alongside scientific research.

He says of his thinking, "Inspiration and ideas come from all around you, but I'm driven by frustration with things that really aren't good enough and should be a lot better -- also, coffee early in the morning in a cafe in a busy place helps!" E-mail to a friend