WEARING clothes fitted with thin sheets of a new, light rubbery material can turn you - almost - into a Superhero, preventing serious injury to vital joints and organs.

　　The invention is called d3o and when the wearer moves, the hundreds of flexible cells of d3o in padding in the clothing also move. The material remains supple enough to allow you to leap, roll and kick with perfect ease.

　　But when d3o lining is hit by a heavy object or during a fall on hard ground, it tenses up and the force of the blow is absorbed by the material, with the wearer feeling hardly any contact.

　　Seconds later, the unique material made of “intelligent molecules” returns to its original pliable state. It could save lives as well as change entire industries globally.

　　d3o is similar to children’s Play-Doh, with the orange sheets of the foam matrix able to be shaped in many ways. It is being incorporated into various things - from protective sportswear, shin pads and motorcycle clothing, to police body armour. Its applications are almost infinite, says its inventor.

　　Snowboarders can buy d3o-lined woollen beanie hats; US police are trying out gloves with d3o-reinforced knuckles. Sewn into ski suits, the material helped several US racers to shrug off accidents and glide towards gold at the Winter Olympics in Turin. It has been adopted enthusiastically by the four-times Everest climber Kenton Cool and Olympic cyclist Craig McClean.

　　The creator of d3o, engineer Richard Palmer, is confident enough of its protective properties to give personal demonstrations, showing he comes to no harm. He decided to create d3o in his United Kingdom workshop after “suffering one snowboarding accident too many”.

　　Palmer added: “The faster the impact, the better the material works. Hopefully, you will never have to use it but if you do receive an impact you will get a much higher level of protection than normal. We don’t like to call it armour, because that implies rigidity. This is a soft, flexible material, like padding, until you hit it.

　　“It provides the same level of protection performance as a bicycle helmet but it also provides comfort. It’s the first material that combines freedom of movement with impact protection, and it represents a step change in the design philosophy behind these products.”

　　When Palmer revealed his theory of d3o - technically, an advanced polymer with shear thickening properties - experts laughed at the idea, saying “impossible”. To make it work, he says he was driven to the edge of ruin.

　　Now, the company believes it could have global takings of two billion pounds after his invention has been praised. Recently, Palmer received the O2 X Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007 in a ceremony in London.

　　Presenting the award, O2 director Simon Devonshire said: “Richard is an inspiration to anyone with a dream and the drive to realise it.” d3o is being hailed as an invention with the potential to create novel manufacturing opportunities and save lives.

　　“It has been a battle to get this far,” said Richard Palmer. “I have had to struggle against ignorance of the major players, work out of a back bedroom and beg, borrow and steal to keep development going … but I never doubted that it could be done.”

　　An engineer by training, it was while studying design at the Royal College of Art that he set up a consultancy to find solutions to problems using new technologies. One quest was to make a protection “shield” that is flexible and unobtrusive. The answer came from using certain types of “thickening liquids”.

　　“That was the easy bit,” he said. Then followed years of struggle as Palmer searched for seed funding to bring his revolutionary material to market. Before setting up the company in 2001, he sold his house and car, moved into a friend’s spare room. With little money he started the development, calling in help from friends and raising d3o to the point where it was ready for production.

　　The research took more than 18 months; he met hundreds of potential investors but no one wanted to take a risk on such an ambitious idea. That struggle eventually led him to get capital from the Business Angels group.

　　The British Business Angels Association is the national trade association for the UK’s Business Angel Networks and the early-stage investment market. It is backed by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR - formerly the Department of Trade & Industry).

　　Palmer said: “Business angels tend not to require security and, having decided that we needed a substantial investment without having to cede too much day-to-day control, we decided that business angel funding was ideal for our business.

　　“Armed with our business plan, we contacted the British Business Angels Association who introduced us to several angels. As a small but growing business, our choice of angel was based largely on the sort of practical assistance they were offering. We pitched our proposal to a shortlist of investors to show them the benefits of their involvement. One investor decided to invest after our first meeting.”

　　d3o now has 20 staff in its Brighton headquarters and key customers such as Quiksilver and Spyder. Palmer estimates that another 30-40 clients could sign on soon. “Every day brings fresh enquiries about potential new applications for d3o from airlines, police forces and car manufacturers.”

　　What is d3o?

　　Palmer explains it is a polymer with similar properties to a lump of wet sand, or cornflour and water. When you try to move them quickly, they stick together; d3o is similar to a thick liquid - when shocked, it turns into a solid.

　　But he warns that d3o-lined clothing and hats are not a substitute for specially designed protective wear. Palmer said: “Our beanie will not give you the same protection as a helmet. But for those snowboarders who choose to wear it, it is a lot better than a normal beanie.”

　　The development lab team has already produced a range of other products. These include a rigid Frisbee that folds into a soft handkerchief when you catch it, and the world’s first bullet-proof wallpaper - a lightweight covering that absorbs and contains projectile shrapnel generated when a bullet is shot into a building and smashes.

　　“I know it must sound like we are trying to build a Bat lab here, but I make no apology for that,” said Richard Palmer. “This is what science is supposed to be - something that excites the imagination and inspires the mind.” (Source: British Consulate-General in Chongqing)