Dorel Juvenile Group Recognized For Advancing Innovation In The Juvenile Products Industry With Two JPMA Innovation Awards

By PR Newswire 10/15/12 - 08:54 AM EDT LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Dorel Juvenile Group, Inc. (DJG), a division of Dorel Industries Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A) and the nation's largest juvenile products manufacturer, today unveiled a comprehensive line-up of the latest in child safety and innovation at the ABC Kids Expo ( October 14-17, 2012) in Louisville, KY. A juvenile industry leader, Dorel Juvenile Group, was recognized by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association with two 2012 JPMA Innovation Awards for the Maxi-Cosi Prezi and the Safety 1 st® BOOSTAPAK. Internationally recognized, the JPMA Innovation Awards highlight the most exciting and innovative new products in the juvenile marketplace today. Entries are evaluated by a selection committee of trade media representatives and industry retail buyers, and judged on their innovation, marketability, trend-setting potential, appeal and usefulness. Investing Solutions "We are honored that the JPMA has recognized our products for their trusted and industry leading innovation in the parenting space," said Dave Taylor, President and CEO of Dorel Juvenile Group. "Dorel continues to strive to develop quality products to address the everyday needs of parents and to ensure the safety of children." Continuing its pursuit of advancing the category, Dorel Juvenile Group had products across multiple categories honored as winners and finalists for the awards. 2012 JPMA Innovation Award winning products included: Maxi-Cosi Prezi: Combining industry-leading safety features without sacrificing style or convenience, the Maxi-Cosi Prezi "only does everything". Innovative technologies, like G-Cell HX™, a patented rebounding foam technology developed in conjunction with Bald Spot Sports (a leader in safety innovation for Indy Racing), and Air Protect ® have raised the bar industry wide on car seat safety. A five-point, Easy-Out Harness with center front adjuster makes it easier to properly secure your infant. Safety 1 st® BOOSTAPAK: The Safety 1 st BOOSTAPAK easily converts from a belt-positioning-booster to backpack with spacious capacity to provide on-the-go convenience and safety. The BOOSTAPAK fits children 40-80lbs and 43"-57" with an easy to wipe clean cover. For more information Dorel Juvenile Groups products, visit booth #100 and #300 at the ABC Kids Expo in Louisville, KY or go to www.djgusa.com. About Dorel Juvenile GroupDorel Juvenile Group is a division of Dorel Industries Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A,) a world class juvenile products and bicycle company. Now in its 50th year, Dorel creates style and excitement in equal measure to safety, quality and value. The Company's lifestyle leadership position is pronounced in both its Juvenile and Bicycle categories with an array of trend-setting products. Dorel's powerfully branded products include Safety 1st, Quinny, Cosco, Maxi-Cosi and Bebe Confort in Juvenile, as well as Cannondale, Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, IronHorse and SUGOI in Recreational/Leisure. Dorel's Home Furnishings segment markets a wide assortment of both domestically produced and imported furniture products, principally within North America. Dorel has annual sales of US$2.4 billion and employs 5,000 people in facilities located in twenty-two countries worldwide.

Maxi-Cosi’s New Prezi Infant Car Seat Offers Sleek European Design & Advanced Safety Features by Nadia Carriere on September 4, 2012

Dorel announced the launch of their new Maxi-Cosi Prezi Infant Car Seat today. The Prezi offers the most innovative technology available in car seats today with advanced safety features, style and safety. What’s so special about this car seat you ask? Well, the Prezi was actually developed with advanced side impact protection featuring revolutionary G-Cell HX™ and Air Protect® technologies. G-Cell HX™ is an advanced, patented, rebounding foam technology with hexagonal shapes that mitigates first impact energy while Air Protect® dispels remaining crash forces. These technologies were developed in conjunction with Bald Spot Sports (BSS) a leading company in the world of professional car racing technologies. In addition, the car seat has several convenience features like a stay-in-car five-position adjustable base with built in rebound control, Easy-Out 5 point harness and headrest can be easily and quickly adjusted for a proper fit. The seat is compatible with Quinny and Maxi-Cosi strollers and accommodates infants 4-30 pounds and up to 29 inches. The Prezi is available in 6 bright and beautiful colors, available through retailers nationwide for $289.00.

A Super Safe Car Seat Designed By Racecar Engineers

A Super Safe Car Seat Designed By Racecar Engineers - That's Us!!! By Barry Mahal, as told to Stephanie Schomer | June 18, 2012 What happens when racecar engineers help create a car seat? Barry Mahal, EVP of car-seat design for Dorel Juvenile Group, recalls how the Maxi-Cosi Prezi came to be. "Our industry is full of similar products with the same goal: safety. So to truly innovate, we felt we needed to speak to people who think more broadly about danger. We partnered with one of the largest providers of seats for racecars, which protect drivers in 200-mile-per-hour crashes. They introduced us to a variety of foam compositions, and explained that proximity is key--no matter how good a material is, it's no benefit if it's too far from the driver's body. From there, we created a foam with hexagonal cells, which force the energy created in a crash to collapse in on itself, keeping it and the associated impacts away from the child. And the foam, from head to toe, is as close to the child as possible without reducing comfort." ($289, maxi-cosi.com/us)

A version of this article appears in the July/August 2012 issue of Fast Company.

Bald Spot Sports Takes Front Row at Indianapolis 500

Bald Spot Sports Takes Front Row at Indianapolis 500 Announces Qualifiers Racing in BSS Custom Race Seats Brownsburg, Indiana – May 2012 – Bald Spot Sports, LLC, [BSS] announced that all 33 drivers who qualified for the 96th Indianapolis 500 will be driving in BSS custom foam bead race seats when they start their engines Sunday. BSS manufactures two different custom seat products to absorb impact forces before they act on the body of a racecar driver during a collision. Seats are manufactured using technology exclusive to BSS and molded from two new specialty foams, Creafoam and ARPRO. CreafoamTM seats, which offer greater proven force deadening properties than a standard generic expanded polystyrene seat offered by many of the competitors, are designed to absorb the forces acting on the driver during a single impact. ARPRO foam seats, which have greater elasticity, absorb impact and return to the initial shape with greater integrity. Areas can be carved out of the neck and back areas of the elastic seat to create room for foam stability plugs to be inserted. The Creafoam plugs, when inserted, are designed to offer maximum stability and force deadening during a single impact. These seats can offer greater support for the driver during secondary impacts continuing to act on the car after the primary collision. The entire front row of the 96th Indianapolis 500 owns ARPRO multi-impact race seats. About Bald Spot Sports Bald Spot Sports [BSS] is headquartered in the suburbs of the racing capital of Indianapolis, Indiana. BSS is actively engaged in the production of technologically superior racing seats, head surrounds and helmet liners for professional auto racers and private enthusiasts and continually works with independent labs to test innovative foam products.

Simpson Tackles NFL Safety

Simpson Tackles NFL Safety InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report Motor sports safety equipment pioneer Bill Simpson says his helmet designed for the National Football League is continuing to gain acceptance by players. He is partnering with IndyCar team owner Chip Ganassi on a company that he says could generate around 250 employees, if it secures just 10 percent of the market. Simpson discusses the venture with Gerry Dick on this weekend's special edition of Inside INdiana Business from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Simpson says he got the idea after becoming friends with Tom Moore, when he was a coach with the Colts. The safety expert adds his first NFL style helmet tested 50 percent better than football headgear at the time when it came to impact. Simpson and Ganassi's company, HGH Components, is certified with the NFL and NCAA. The two are also hoping to reach into high schools and are working on a helmet for lacrosse players. Source: Inside INdiana Business Report

NEW PRODUCT REVIEW: KartingParts.biz (SME Motorsports) Develops Seat Inserts and Steering Column Padding

KartingParts.biz, a division of SME Motorsports in Brownsburg, Ind., has created two new products to improve karting safety. The new SME Steering Wheel Bumper reduces the risk of injury from a hard frontal impact and the new SME Seat Inserts are designed to reduce injuries suffered in an accident and over a long karting career. “Not too long ago, my daughter had an accident in her kid kart that inspired me to create the steering column bumpers,” stated SME President Steve Eppard. “My goal was to slow the body and/or head down and distribute the G-forces out and away from the body to significantly reduce the risk of injury to a driver, in this case, my daughter.” SME Steering Wheel Bumpers allow for a series of force reducing impacts before the body’s inertia would cause it to make contact with a stationary steering column. The Bald Spot Sports foam plug in the core helps reduce the severity of injury by transferring the forces of impact to create less of a recoil effect back into the seat. The steering column bumper currently attaches to any 3-hole steering wheel/hub connection and will soon be available for the 6-hole wheel/hub configurations. All bumpers come covered in fabric with a felt backing. Standard color is black, custom colors and embroidery are available at an extra cost. For the maximum possible safety for young karters’ chest and internal organ’s safety, combine the Steering Column Karting Bumper with an SFI 20.1/1 or 20.1/2 karting chest protector SME Seat Inserts are made with the same BaldSpotSports foam and come in a variety of kit options designed to upgrade all popular karting seats. These foam inserts support the tailbone and spine, hips, and ribs against the various hits a kart driver may experience.. Like the steering column bumper, the Seat Inserts distribute and absorb the forces of impact in an accident, thus lessening the chances of injury to each of the areas of the seat/body where they’re installed. These inserts can also help a kart racer avoid long-term “compression style” injuries to the lower lumbar of the spine that result from the repetitive ‘bumps’ a back can take going over curbs or when bottoming out. Standard SME Seat Insert pads are all 3/8” thick and covered in black fabric with a felt backing. Custom thicknesses are available and can increase lower lumbar support. Custom fabric colors and embroidery are also available. Add Velcro™ to the back of the inserts and position in kart seat to maximize comfort and protection. Some drivers choose to use a seat one-size larger than they would need without inserts and add 1/2" to 3/4” thick inserts to maximize comfort and protection. Mike Burrell, 20-year karting veteran and former NKN writer said, “I visited a chiropractor for lower back pains. The Doctor said my L5 vertebra was compressed and a bit askew, and I had broken my tailbone at some point. He asked what I possibly could have done to cause that and it was determined karting was probably the cause. Steve built me a seat back insert and it’s significantly reduced my pain on days after I race.” The Bald Spot Sports material used in both the steering column bumper and seat inserts is SFI 45.2 certified impact padding approved for use in all professional racing (for more information visit http://www.sfifoundation.com). This is the same material used to make the seats and custom padding in Indycar™, NHRA and NASCAR™ seats. However, most karts don’t allow for the foam to be used in a format as thick as “the pros” seats. After impacting this material 15 times at 70 G’s of force, Indycar™ committed to using this material for the interior parts in the new DW12 because the material consistently maintains its strength and integrity! For more information on SME Motorsports karting products visit www.kartingparts.biz or call 317-709-0770.

Celebrate Pi Day!

Celebrate Pi Day - March 14th

Mmmm. Pi Day! The nerdy holiday celebrated by math geeks worldwide. This is the day we gather around to celebrate that amazing little (long) number, pi.

Pi, approximately 3.14159, is the mysterious mathematical constant (number) that represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter.

Pi has its day, appropriately, on March 14 (3/14). Often a Pi Day celebration will have an extra special event set for pi minute (at 1:59pm). In the UK, Pi Approximation Day is often celebrated on July 22 (22/7) as 22 divided by 7 is an approximation for pi.

This day brings more fun to math classes around the world then anything else (second only to Math League). I wish you a very Happy Pi Day 2012!

Happy Leap Day!

Once every four years Leap Year comes…but why? It turns out ancient Egyptians discovered it takes the Earth a little longer than a year to travel around the Sun—365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to be exact.

So, what will you do with the extra day?