Riverside County Success Story

Nature has evolved highly efficient structural designs with outstanding toughness, strength, impact resistance and damage tolerance. Helicoid Industries has emulated these remarkable damage resistant biological structures in its patented  technology for commercial use in composite materials.

​Millions of years ago, the “smasher” Mantis shrimp, one of nature’s feistiest predators, evolved to develop a complex internal structure. This unique structure forms the mantis shrimp’s damage tolerant club and protects it from self-inflicting damage as it crushes hard-shelled prey with incredible speed and force. By reverse engineering the club, it has been determined that it is not the material, but the structure that provides this unique strength and toughness. This structure is called a Helicoid™.

The helicoidal material is organized in locally parallel fibrous layer stacks with small inter-ply pitch angles. Over 16 Universities and research groups from around the world have spent over 14 years and over $12 million dollars investigating helicoidal-inspired composite materials, aimed at exploiting the formidable toughening mechanisms observed in nature to enhance the mechanical performance, toughness and damage resistance of conventional composite structures currently on the market.

Biomimetic Composite Technology Enhancing Impact and Toughness Performance. The  Helicoid™ architecture drastically enhances impact toughness, reduces weight and saves material costs compared to conventional composite laminates. 

Commercialization of their core Helicoid™ technology, began in of 2020, and is targeting key manufacturers in the protective and sporting goods, consumer products, automotive, defense, wind turbine and aerospace markets. The company is finalizing a $5 million seed round of financing for future prototype manufacturing and additional biomimicry research initiatives.