TITUSVILLE, Fla. (June 16, 2004) – With assistance from the NASA-funded Space Alliance Technology Outreach program, a Chicago inventor/entrepreneur is developing a restraint system that will revolutionize the way infants and toddlers are protected from injury during a car accident.

John Guenther’s Kinematic Child Restraint system will take a giant leap in technological sophistication, helping reduce some of the hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries to children who are properly secured in the seats on the market today.

Called the Safety Egg™, Guenther’s invention is a dynamic energy management system designed to better handle the high G-force experienced by children in auto accidents. 

Because the safest way for humans to endure G-force is for the body to be fully supported from head to toe, Safety Egg’s design keeps the baby supine in a gimbaled pod that will rotate from the force of a crash.  The rotation absorbs the crash energy and protects the passenger. The pod design also provides for protection from injury in rear and side impact crashes, which current safety seat technology does not.

“Each year a significant number of fatalities and injuries occur because of the shortcomings of existing designs,” Guenther said.  “Because the Kinematic Child Restraint system moves to accommodate changing crash directions, the child is protected no matter the direction of the impact.”

Testing on Guenther’s design at both the University of Michigan and Wayne State University produced promising results, but Guenther realized that his device would require some kind of braking system to stop the rotation. Designing such a system was beyond the scope of his engineering expertise. 

Fortunately, Guenther read a national news story about SATOP in the Chicago Tribune and immediately called the program for help.  SATOP provides free engineering assistance to small businesses with technical challenges through the donations of expertise from 49 Space Alliance Partners

Design By Analysis, Inc. (DBA), a SATOP Alliance Partner in New Britain, Conn., volunteered to address Guenther’s technical challenge. DBA senior project engineer Bob Avalone, a 20-year mechanical engineering veteran, offered his expertise.  “I had never seen anything like John’s concept before – it was new and unique,” Avalone said.  “This is the next generation in child safety seats.”

In less than two weeks, Avalone presented Guenther with two conceptual designs for braking the seat: a centrifugal braking system and a spring mechanism.  Guenther is in the process of determining which system he will use.

“DBA has indicated that they would be interested in participating further in the development of my child restraint design. It is intensely gratifying to know that they see the project as credible technology,” Guenther said.