Different Materials Used as Lightweight Body Armor
Lightweight body armor was used since the early times. They were produced in order to give protection from various weapons made and from different existing threats. Light Body armor in the early days was in the form of leather body armors and animal skins. These materials were used because they are lighter than wood and metals.
During the medieval Japanese, silk was used for lightweight body armors. The Japanese were the first to use silk as body armors, according to history. And it was only in the 19th century that United States made use of the silk for the soldier’s soft body armors. Silk was effective against low velocity bullets but is inefficient for stronger ammunitions. Moreover, they are too costly that made them unacceptable. After the silk, new materials for the lightweight body armor were appeared such as the ballistic nylon. Ballistic Nylon was the material used for the flak jackets during the World War II. This anti ballistic flak jackets offer protection from ammunition fragments but not from projectiles coming from pistols and rifles. In addition, these new generation materials were quite bulky, dense and heavy. Different patents were recorded for various designs of lightweight body armor using different materials. And in 1960’s, new fibers were discovered from the effort of DuPont Company. The discovery of the Kevlar fiber is considered to be the most significant achievement in the development of body armor. The Kevlar fiber has great tensile strength which is five times more than the strength of steel. Moreover, the Kevlar fiber has great ballistic protection properties and has the capability to stop fired projectiles from penetrating deeper into the skin. It can also reduce the effect of blunt trauma into the internal organs. After the discovery of Kevlar, many other materials used for lightweight body armor followed. Materials such as Spectra made by Honeywell, Twaron made by Accordis and Dyneema immediately sprouted after Kevlar. These materials were the leading materials in the body armor industry today and they were proven to give good ballistic protection and performance like Kevlar. |