Factors affecting the comfort of bulletproof vest – bulletproof materials

Comfort is an important indicator of bulletproof  vest, including moisture, breathability, softness, and lightness. With a reasonable structural design, the soft body armor can have better softness and lightness. If you want to balance comfort at the same time, you must ensure that the body armor is light, comfortable and protective. The bulletproof material, protective area and structural design used directly determine the protective ability, weight, wearing and performance of the bulletproof  vest . The following Anwar police equipment will talk to everyone about the fibers and materials used in bulletproof vests!

Fibers and materials are the primary factors in the reduction of weight loss and performance of body armor. The improved air permeability and softness of the fabric help the wearer to react and move quickly in the event of danger. At present, bulletproof suits are developing towards better protective fibers and lower costs. The development of new materials and the application of new technologies are the driving force for their development. The decisive factor for improving the protective performance and weight reduction of military bulletproof vests is bulletproof materials. Therefore, the selection of mature high-quality, high-strength, soft and lightweight materials is an important way to achieve weight reduction and comfort.

First, the new generation of Kevlar aramid fiber: Kevlar AS450X is a new generation of aramid products to solve multiple security threats, especially for the wearer to wear bulletproof vests more comfortable. The product has developed a combination of stab-resistant, anti-nail and anti-ballistic features that provide excellent comfort while also providing significant maneuverability, especially when driving on patrol vehicles.

According to market research, body armor also needs to be waterproof. Kevlar XPS104 fabrics offer excellent ballistics and comfort even in wet conditions, especially in tropical climates or in extremely humid locations.

Second, Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber: In the 1990s, the United States realized the commercial production of ultra-high modulus polyethylene fiber under the trade name “Spectra”, which has superior performance, strength and higher modulus than Kevlar. The amount is a fiber spun from a polyethylene having a molecular weight of 100 to 500,000. The ballistic helmet and vest made of this fiber material can be reduced in weight by 1/3 while maintaining the same protective properties as Kevlar products. Ultra-high modulus polyethylene fiber is chemically resistant and wear resistant; it has a low density and excellent mechanical properties and energy absorption properties; the fiber density is the smallest among all high performance fibers, which can greatly reduce the physical strength of workers.

Third, spider silk: spider silk is currently the world’s toughest and elastic fiber belongs to the biological protein fiber. It has the best structure produced by nature, and has high fracture strength and excellent comprehensive performance: tough texture, strong strength, good elasticity, softness, light weight, etc., and biodegradable and recoverable. It is used in aerospace (such as aircraft and satellite structural materials, composite materials, aerospace clothing), military (such as tank armor, body armor, parachute), construction (such as bridges and high-rise building materials), medicine (such as artificial joints) , tendons, ligaments and other fields have shown broad application prospects.

Fourth,Carbon Nanotubes: Carbon nanotubes are hollow graphite cylinders with only one atomic thickness. It is similar in structure to polymer materials, but its stability is much higher. If it is made into a composite material, it can have good strength, elasticity, fatigue resistance and isotropy; it can improve the engineering properties of UHMWPE and enhance its heat dissipation. The body armor not only can withstand greater impact, but also more airy, light and comfortable.

As biotechnology advances, tough materials such as spider silk are likely to be mass produced by genetically modified or synthetic methods. The development of nanotechnology will also enable the development of flexible, robust ballistic materials. At present, high-performance fibers commonly used as matrix materials for composite materials mainly include carbon fibers, aramid fibers, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene fibers, and glass fibers. These high-performance fibers and fiber-reinforced resins can be combined with ballistic composite materials with superior performance, which have the advantages of light weight, good flexibility and good protection effect.

(source:http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/Industry_News/1334.html)

Soft bullet proof vest puncture-proof?

Many people think that soft bullet proof vest even can bullet proof , to deal with the tool cutting and piercing is more a piece of cake, but unfortunately, the soft body armor is not fully equipped with stab service functions. Why? Here JiangSu Anhua will explain for you as follows:

Soft bullet proof vest is made of a Kevlar material ,when the bullet hit a soft bullet proof vest,  toughness strong of  Kevlar fiber will take the bullet kinetic energy transmitted to the entire soft bullet proof vest, so that you can reach bullet proof effect. That principle is actually a soft bullet proof vest take the warhead impact energy share to every Kevlar fiber, so when get a shot soft bullet proof will whole damaged . But the tool generated is shear stress, direction of the force perpendicular to the fiber material, and the energy density is much higher than the tip of the bullet, the material learned people know, the fiber material for vertical shear stress resistance is the worst even say no effect, so, for  the cutting tools, soft bulletproof vest have to Despair. High-speed bullet impact to soft bulletproof vest and edge tool and impact mechanism is different also, the former mainly through bullet deformation energy dispersion, mode of transmission fiber breakage and shock wave energy dispersion or consumed, and knife for soft bulletproof vest piercing mainly by shear principle, energy dispersive range is relatively narrow, especially on the head than the tip of the bayonet less likely to defend.

On the market,No single type of soft body armor products  puncture-resistant performance test can pass GA68-1994 standards ,and also can not reach a new stab service standards to be promulgated by the provisions of dynamic 25J puncture resistance. Of course, there are some soft body armor stab effect, the ability of anti-puncture body armor structure according to (mainly structural composition of bulletproof material) to be. To puncture effect to the provisions of the standard stab-resistant clothing, you can only select a hard body armor and special stab-resistant clothing.

(source:http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/soft-bullet-proof-vest-puncture-proof.html)

Material development of bulletproof vest

What is a body armor? This is a kind of military uniform that can prevent bullets in a rain of bullets and shrapnel penetrate , also known as bullet proof vest.So ,how many materials can make bulletproof vest?How is it a development process?Jiangsu anhua will explain them for you.

Development of bulletproof material has gone through a long historical process. From the ordinary rolled steel to alloy steel, metal materials from steel to glass, from the ordinary to the aramid fiber (Kevlar), from a single material to composite materials. Every step, have made a big step to improve the performance of body armor. Although bulletproof material varied, variety, but to sum up, only the metal (including alloy), glass, steel, ceramics, nylon, silicon carbide and Kevlar six categories. Among them, the latter three are soft ballistic material ,with many excellent performance, has gradually replaced the first three rigid material. Nylon is soft bulletproof material, the use of multi-layer high-strength nylon, can effectively prevent submachine pistol bullets and bullets, lighter; silicon carbide fiber is an inorganic fiber, it has a particularly high modulus of elasticity, tear generated upon impact crack and absorb the energy of shrapnel,  weaken the broken shell fragments of  harm to human body ; Kevlar has a high temperature, high strength and high modulus, which is five times the strength of steel. Such material is made of body armor, bulletproof better, more comfortable to wear. When a bullet or shrapnel hitting the Kevlar layer, its high strength to block bullets, stress and deformation of the fiber itself, consume a bullet or shrapnel kinetic energy, thereby protecting the wearer’s safety. Recently, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene starts to ballistic layers.

Nylon, Kevlar, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene are classes based on soft fabrics or  impregnated with a resin-based chemical production of ballistic layers, the ballistic mechanism  is the same: to use their strength to resist a bullet or shrapnel, when not resist, twisted fibers embedded live bullets or shrapnel, the first layer can not stop, there is a second layer, fought quite a bit of flavor. The main factors that determine the performance is ballistic fabric weight and thickness, structure; The second is made bulletproof vest material structure. Test showed a dense structure plain fabric 200 g / m 2 has the best ballistic results. Such a line with three fabric sewn together enough defense rifle bullets. US ground forces wearing bullet-proof vests are using 475 g / m 2 13 layers of Kevlar fabric, coat are olive green cloth. Outer clothing sets is 272 g / m 2 ballistic nylon fabric,through the conjugate water treatment, four-color  green jungle built; the same inner and outer layers, using olive green. Such bulletproof body armor layer inner sleeve clothes、the outer portion are all have bullet-proof effect.

（source：http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/material-development.html）

Mechanism and influencing factors of bullet proof vests

There are two mechanism fundamentally of bullet proof vests: First, after the formation of the projectile fragmentation fragments bounce;  second, through the bulletproof material dispel kinetic warhead.

In the twenties and thirties,in USA the first body armor was developed by the clothes even in the solid lap steel to provide protection. This body armor and bulletproof later similar hardware that is by bullet or shrapnel bounce, or make the bullet fragments to break down their energy consumption and the role played bulletproof. High performance fiber as the main material of software bulletproof vests, bulletproof mechanism which places the latter based, namely the use of high-strength fiber as raw material fabric “grab” a bullet or shrapnel bullet to achieve the purpose. Research shows that the way software bulletproof vests to absorb energy in the following five categories:

(1) fabric deformation: the deformation of the incident and the incident direction of the bullet points, including the area near the tensile deformation;
(2) destruction of the fabric include: fibrillated fiber fracture, disintegration and dissolution of the yarn structure of the fabric structure of the fibers;
(3) heat energy: energy through friction way to distribute heat;
(4) sound energy: ballistic projectile impact sound energy emitted consumed layer
(5) elastomers.

In order to improve the capacity and developed bulletproof soft and hard composite body armor, bulletproof mechanism which can be summed up with the “carrot and stick.” When the bullet hit body armor, the first action is to take place with a hard material such as steel or armor-reinforced ceramic materials. In this moment of contact process, the bullet-proof material and rigid deformation or fracture can happen, most of the energy consumed bullets. High-strength fabric liner as body armor and a second line of defense, absorption and diffusion of energy remaining portion of the bullet and play the role of a buffer, so as to reduce the non-penetrating injury. In these two bulletproof during previous plays a major role in energy absorption, greatly reducing the penetration force of the projectile is bulletproof key.

Factors affecting bulletproof vests and bulletproof material performance can be considered from two aspects interact projectile (the bullet or shrapnel). Specifically on the radio, it’s kinetic energy, shapes and materials is an important factor in determining its penetration power. Ordinary warheads, especially lead core or ordinary steel core bullet-proof material after exposure will deform. In this process, the bullet is consumed a considerable part of the kinetic energy, thus effectively reducing the penetration of bullets, is an important aspect of bullet energy absorption mechanism. As for the secondary shrapnel or bullet fragments generated when the bomb exploded, grenades and the like, the situation is significantly different. These shrapnel irregular shape, sharp edges, light weight, small size, in particular, after hitting soft bulletproof material bulletproof material deformation. In general, the speed of such debris is not high, but the large and dense. Soft body armor for key energy absorption that such debris: fragments cut, stretch and make bulletproof fabric yarn breakage, and make the interaction between the internal fabric of yarn and fabric between different levels, resulting in deformation of the fabric as a whole in the course of these pieces of external work, thereby consuming its own energy. In the above two types of body energy absorption process, there are a small part of the energy by friction (fiber / fiber, fiber / bullet) into heat, is converted to acoustic energy by the impact.

In order to meet the body armor bullet To maximize absorption and other requirements of the kinetic energy of the projectile, bulletproof material must have high strength, good toughness, high energy absorption capability of performance. Currently used for body armor, especially soft body armor material on both high performance fiber-based. These high-performance fibers with high strength and high modulus is an important feature. Some high-performance fibers such as carbon fibers or boron fibers or the like, although having a high strength, but because of poor flexibility, low work of fracture, it is difficult textile processing, as well as the reasons for higher prices, substantially does not apply to human body armor. Specifically, for ballistic fabric, its ballistic effect depends on the following aspects: fiber tensile strength, elongation at break and work of fracture of the fibers, the modulus of the fibers, the orientation of the fibers and the stress wave transmission speed, fiber fineness, set mode fiber, fiber weight per unit area, structure and surface characteristics of the yarn, fabric structure, the thickness of the fibrous web layer, network layer or layers and other fabric layers. For the impact of the fiber material, its performance depends on the speed of the fracture energy and stress wave fiber transmission. Stress wave diffusion request as soon as possible, but in the high-speed impact of fiber fracture energy should be increased as much as possible. Tensile fracture function material is a material resistant to external damage has energy, it is a tensile strength and elongation related functions. Thus, theoretically, the higher the tensile strength, elongation ability strong material, its potential energy absorption becomes. In practice, however, the material for the body armor does not allow excessive deformation, so the inevitable fiber for body armor while having a high ability to resist deformation, i.e. high modulus.

（source：http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/mechanism-and-influencing-factors-of-bullet-proof-vests.html)

Performance of bullet proof vest

Bullet proof vest means “able to absorb and dissipate warhead fragments kinetic energy, preventing the penetration, the effective protection of human kind clothing fenced site.” According to the use of perspective, it can be divided into military type and  police type. From the material, the body armor can be divided into software, hardware, and software and hardware complex of three. Soft body armor materials are mainly high performance textile fiber-based composite materials without sheeting, these high-performance fibers are generally much higher than the energy absorption capacity of the material, given bulletproof vests and body armor because of this commonly used textiles structure, which is also a considerable flexibility, called soft body armor. Hardware is based on body armor special steel, aluminum and other metal materials or super-alumina, silicon carbide and other hard non-metallic materials as the main bullet-proof material, body armor made therefrom generally do not have the flexibility to flapper mainly in the form. Soft and hard body armor composite softness between the two types, it is lined with soft materials to hard materials and reinforcements as the panel is a composite body armor.

As a kind of protective equipment, body armor should first have the core performance is bulletproof performance. At the same time, as a function of the garment, it should also have some clothes with the performance.

Bulletproof body armor performance is mainly reflected in the following two ways:
(1) flak: high speed fragments of various explosives such as bombs, mines, artillery shells and grenades explosion is one of the main threats to the battlefield. According to the survey, the threat of the order of a battlefield soldier faces is: shrapnel, bullets, blast and heat. So, to put great emphasis on the function of flak.
(2) Resistant to penetrating injury: the bullet hit the target after will have a great impact, this impact force is applied to the damage produced by the human body is often fatal. Such damage is not showing through, but can cause internal injuries, severe life-threatening. An important aspect of it is to prevent non-penetrating injury is reflected in bulletproof vests and test performance.

(source:http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/performance-of-bullet-proof-vest.html)

Bulletproof vest and anti riot suit use and differences

In addition to bulletproof vest, the special forces and SWAT teams around the world also have the following protective clothing and protective devices.
Multipurpose protective clothing. On the modern battlefield, Soldiers moment face threaten  by a variety of weapons, and the widespread use of various optical reconnaissance equipment, often make it in “broad daylight.” In order to effectively improve battlefield survivability, military and technical personnel to design a multi-purpose protective clothing. It uses a special lightweight fiber material ,after processing, not only Bulletproof piece can also be anti-virus, anti-infrared, but also to camouflage the same as they are now ready to wear on the body, greatly reducing wear due to chemical and biological weapons who were not timely “sneak attack” possibilities. In order to protect the soldier’s feet, military and technical personnel also designed to anti-mine and shrapnel “protective boots.” As a result, despite a hail of bullets on the battlefield, gas filled the air, the soldiers are fearless.
Anti riot suit usually jumpsuit style, with a refractory material, can prevent gasoline bottles and incendiary attacks. It has a variety of protective equipment, when the curtain quell riots and chaos, can effectively protect the body.
(source:http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/bulletproof-vest-and-anti-riot-suit-use-and-differences.html)

What role of the bulletproof vest?

There are many kinds of bulletproof vest,then what is a bulletproof vest and what role of it?

A bulletproof vest, ballistic vest or bullet-resistant vest is an item of personal armor that helps absorb the impact from firearm-fired projectiles and shrapnel from explosions, and is worn on the torso. Soft vests are made from many layers of woven or laminated fibers and can be capable of protecting the wearer from small-caliber handgun and shotgun projectiles, and small fragments from explosives such as hand grenades.

Metal or ceramic plates can be used with a soft vest, providing additional protection from rifle rounds, and metallic components or tightly woven fiber layers can give soft armour resistance to stab and slash attacks from knives and similar close-quarter weapons. Soft vests are commonly worn by police forces, private citizens who are at risk of being shot (e.g., national leaders), security guards, and bodyguards, whereas hard-plate reinforced vests are mainly worn by combat soldiers, police tactical units, and hostage rescue teams.

Modern body armor may combine a ballistic vest with other items of protective clothing, such as a combat helmet. Vests intended for police and military use may also include ballistic shoulder and side protection armor components, and bomb disposal officers wear heavy armor and helmets with face visors and spine protection.

(source:http://www.anhuapolice.com/news/what-role-of-the-bulletproof-vest.html)