ISU teams up with hockey company to test skate protector

Researchers at Idaho State University, along with a few students will build a machine that shoots hockey pucks out at 100 miles per hour. Members of the robotics and communications systems engineering technology department teamed up with Fi-Ber Sports, Inc. to test out a product which is suppose to protect hockey players ankles and feet from injuries.

“We are going to be measuring these forces on the hockey skate with and without the new Skate Armor gear as well as complete comparative testing on other similar products in the market,” said Shane Slack, director of the ISU robotics department and principal investigator.

Once the machine is built, ISU will install sensors into the skate protector and see how well it protects the foot from injuries after they launch pucks at it.

“And we will see if it can actually absorb and deflect the impact from the hockey puck. Take it from the foot so that when the puck hits the skate it does not damage the persons toe or side of their foot or their heel,” commented Slack.

The research is funded by a $111,453 Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission grant from the Idaho Department of Commerce, a program designed to facilitate research partnerships between Idaho higher education institutions and the technology-based startup companies in the state.

ISU researchers hope to build the hockey puck machine and start testing by mid-September and then run tests until June 2018.