Pollen AM and RHEON Labs have qualified RHEON’s P3D 001 damping pellet on Pollen AM’s Pam Pro printer, the first material validated for that machine in this application. The two companies printed internal protective components and fitted them into the Xenith Shadow XR football helmet, a model already built with RHEON materials.
RHEON Labs tested the printed parts against injection-molded components of the same geometry, measuring energy transmitted through each part during low-energy and high-energy impacts. The printed version weighs 30% less than the molded part and matches or exceeds its damping performance, doing better under some impact conditions, according to the companies.
The pitch is aimed at the mold itself. Helmet makers currently injection-mold these parts in runs of 5,000 to 10,000 helmets, each carrying 1 to 12 protective components. Tooling for that process can run up to €150,000 with lead times reaching three months, and the mold locks designers into draft angles, uniform wall thickness and minimal undercuts, ruling out internal lattices or zone-varying mechanical properties.
P3D 001 ships as pellets, the same feedstock used for injection molding, so material cost stays close to the molding process without the tooling spend. Its stiffness is strain-rate sensitive: soft when worn, stiffening on impact without any post-processing step. Pollen AM says it had to adapt print settings RHEON had already validated on other pellet printers to get them working on the Pam Pro, a process the companies call one of the collaboration’s technical outcomes, though no print speed, nozzle temperature or lattice cell dimensions have been published.
The partners are now looking at motorcycle, bicycle and defense protective gear. A full case study with the transmitted-energy curves, part weights, validated Pam Pro settings and P3D 001’s hardness, melt flow index, elongation and stress-at-break data is available from Pollen AM, with results also set for a webinar on 25 November 2026.