I am looking for any trade organizations that would deal with crash
physics, impact cushioning, foam rubber, or shock attenuation

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Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 12 Jun 2003 07:53 PDT

U.S., U.K., other country or international?
Do you wish to include government agencies, such as the U.S.
Department of Transportation?
Finally: are you concerned about the protection of people or do you
want to cover standards for protecting products (through things like
drop-tests)?

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Clarification of Question by mbuchen-ga on 12 Jun 2003 08:08 PDT

I am selling a product that is a shock atenuation or absorbing
material.  It goes into everything from shoes to indoor arena mats and
typically competes with Foam Rubber or EVA foam.
I am looking for a trade organization or forum which brings companies,
products and people all together.

Mbuchen - -

This is an excellent example of use of the Google search engine, as
changing the search strategy provides entirely new lists of government
agencies, testing labs, consultants, potential partners and non-profit
groups.  The search strategy's summarized at the end but here are some
candidates for trade organizations that may be interesting to you. 
Many of these have corollaries in other industrial countries.

Probably the lead organization in dealing with safety issues of all
kinds is the National Safety Council.  Its work covers factory, home
and road safety issues and is broken into a large number of special
interest groups.  The second link here is for their annual exposition,
which brings together about 800 exhibitors.  Note that there are many
"division" or section meetings at the September conference:
National Safety Council
Home page
http://www.nsc.org/

National Safety Council Congress & Expo
http://www.appcluster05.com/App/homepage.cfm?moduleid=16&appname=338
http://www.appcluster05.com/App/homepage.cfm?appname=338&moduleid=153

As might be expected, the military has a large interest in topics
related to physical protection.
SAVIAC, which is an acronym for the Army's Shock & Vibration center,
holds an annual symposium and has a number of publications:
Shock and Vibration Information Analysis Center
U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center
http://iac.dtic.mil/iac_dir/SAVIAC.html

So too, does the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME),
which has a short
course on "Shock and Vibration Analysis.":
ASME
http://ww2.asme.org/pd/courseDetail.cfm?CO_ID=367

The ASME also runs an annual conference and symposiums, so may have
specific places to make contact with people:
ASME Home Page
http://www.asme.org/

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) lists all of
the nationally-recognized testing labs, which run a variety of
programs to develop standards and inform industry:
OSHA
"Nationally Recognized Testing Labs"
http://www.osha.gov/dts/otpca/nrtl/index.html

One with a standards section for recreation is TUV Rheinland:
TUV (U.S)
"Recreation" (undated)
http://www.us.tuv.com/product_testing/machinery_semi/recreation.html

Any search for "crash test" information results in links to the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, as well as the Australian NCAP program and the
European NCAP program.  However, there are private organizations doing
crash assessment work, most notably:
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Home Page
http://www.hwysafety.org/

There also are groups representing specific materials that are
organized to provide information on shipping.  In this case they
provide technical services to support vendors:
Paper Shipping Sack Manufacturers Association
"Technical Services"
http://www.pssma.com/

And here's the steel industry's association for shipping containers,
admittedly at the opposite end of the cost spectrum:
Steel Shipping Container Institute
Home Page
http://www.steelcontainers.com/

In the sporting goods market, which demands shock attenuation at the
same time light weight is a premium, you'd want to consider the
association that covers manufacturers:
National Sporting Goods Association
Home Page
http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

or its Canadian version:
Canadian Sporting Goods Association
Home Page
http://www.csga.ca/

And don't skip the SGMA International, particularly because they have
a study on extreme sports, which require extreme protection:
SGMA International
Home Page
http://www.sgma.com/index.html

Google search strategy:
"crash tests"
"shock and vibration"
"drop tests"
shipping + "drop tests"

Another worthwhile way to search for trade associations is to pick the
market for the product, then perform a Google search like this:
"sporting goods" + association

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Clarification of Answer by omnivorous-ga on 12 Jun 2003 15:34 PDT

Mbuchen --

I was just getting set to toss my notes when I realized that I'd run
across an interesting governmental agency that's part of the Centers
for Disease Control.  You may find some of its information,
particularly from the WISQARS data base useful:
National Center for Injury Prevention & Control
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/ncipchm.htm

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Outstanding work.
I will be back