19 - Ballistic protection

Abstract

For many years the textile industry has focused attention and committed resources to technology for developing new materials to improve performance, comfort, efficiency, durability, and reliability of body armor. The development of high-strength, high-modulus fibers in the 1960s ushered a new era of body armor that offered protection against small arms munitions and is capable of absorbing enormous amounts of energy quickly enough to change what would normally be a lethal wound into a bruise. Technical advances in the ability to produce composite materials for ballistic protection have changed rapidly in the past years. Reinforced plastic, ceramics, and textile materials have been developed for lightweight body armor. Modern body armor is divided into two main categories; hard body armor and soft body armor. Hard body armor is made from hard ballistic materials like ceramic, plastic or metal plates. Such materials are hard enough to prevent stabbing and slashing injuries from edge weapons. Soft body armor is made from manmade polymeric lightweight fibrous materials that exhibit greatly improved ballistic resistance performance. The soldiers, police officers, and security personnel are the principal users of ballistic body armor.