Helmet systems for hearing and head protection are essential for the safety of maintainers, flight deck crew, and rotary-wing aircrew operating in extremely loud environments. Many of the features that make these helmets effective for noise abatemente.g., limited venting and edge sealsalso act as a thermal barrier increasing the risk of hyperthermia. In this SBIR, we focus on developing a lightweight personal cooling unit capable of delivering targeted head and neck cooling for 12+ hours without degrading helmet protection or the effectiveness of its wearer. Our proposed approach, a Thermoelectric Cranial Cooling Collar (TEC-3), integrates highly novel and proven technologies to deliver significant thermal performancerapidly cooling >40°F below ambientin a lightweight, low-profile, and durable system with hot-swappable rechargeable batteries for 12+ hours of continuous cooling.
