As managing editor of The Super Bowl hype machine is running smoothly despite the fact that there's little newsworthy to report from Miami that's actually related to the game (how many stories do we have to read about Peyton Manning's thumb?).
But Chicago's famous Art Institute has saved the day this week, with the saga of the giant plastic football helmets. The museum decided a few weeks ago to commission a new pair of Bears-replica helmets to crown the famous lion sculptures that guard the building's Michigan Avenue main entrance.
The Art Institute's lions last wore Bears' helmets in 1986, when the home team beat the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. So you have to think the helmets are good luck, right?
Maybe not. This time, the museum decided to go with a cool, more realistic-looking helmet design. But when Chicago Scenic Studios tried to install the helmets on Tuesday, one of them broke.
"We were planning on the flexibility of the plastic to work with us to get those over the mane. Unfortunately, as cold as it was, we had no flexibility, and as soon as we went to pull on it, it cracked," said Gary Heitz, unit manager for the helmet makers.
Never fear, the company took the helmets back to their studio and cut them in half, made them a little bigger and then put them back together.
The good news: the fix worked. Enjoy the video on the project in this story from Chicago's ABC affiliate, Channel 7.
Comments (2)
This story interested me on a couple of levels. Even though I have considerable injection molding and extrusion experience, I've always been fascinated with the use of plastics in "one-off" projects like this. I have little thermoset or fiberglass experience, and I was curious as to how these helmets were proceessed; formed, molded, finished, etc. I visited the Chicago Scenic Studios website, but didn't find much info about that project.
Any comments or posts would be welcome.
My closest similar experience was an attempt to make a huge papier mache' Yogi Bear head when I was a kid. It turned out kind of disturbing, like the Burger King "King" character.
Posted by Marshall Ronin | February 8, 2007 12:51 AM
Posted on February 8, 2007 00:51
Nice topic!
generic name for certain synthetic or semi synthetic materials that can be molded or extruded into objects or films or filaments or used for making e.g. coatings and adhesives....Best Regard
Posted by Polyurethane coating | August 22, 2008 4:03 AM
Posted on August 22, 2008 04:03