Fabric architectures for improved ballistic impact performance

Abstract

A woven fabric from yarn for use in the manufacture of ballistic projectile or puncture resistant articles where the fabric has a first plurality of parallel oriented yarns within the plane of the fabric interwoven with a second plurality of parallel oriented yarns within the plane of the fabric having a direction / orientation within the plane of the fabric different from that of the first plurality and where the crossing of any fiber yarn from the first plurality with a fiber yarn from the second plurality forms a pair of acute vertical angles having an angular measurement less than 90 degrees.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to fabric architectures and soft body armors constructed therefrom.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Protective body armors such as those providing protection against ballistic and stab type threats have long been an area of significant interest. One challenge for body armor manufacturers is to provide adequate protection from a particular threat or threats that the wearer may be subjected to in the field, while minimizing the weight, or areal density of the protective garment so as not to impede the dexterity of the wearer.[0005]Characterization of the protective capabilities of any armor material against ballistic projectile threats, such as deformable bullets and non-deformable shrapnel, requires some determination of the ballistic velocity limit with respect to the material's areal density and size, as well as the properties of the projectile (mass, hardness, shape, etc.). On...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

One challenge for body armor manufacturers is to provide adequate protection from a particular threat or threats that the wearer may be subjected to in the field, while minimizing the weight, or areal density of the protective garment so as not to impede the dexterity of the wearer.

While the ballistic performance requirements set forth above can be achieved using any of several commercially available anti-ballistic materials, or combinations of said materials, the challenge for soft body armor manufactures is the selection and arrangement of ballistic layers required to prevent penetration with an acceptable safety margin and minimize backface deformation while also minimizing the weight, bulk and stiffness of the armor to improve comfort.

Such articles are prepared from combinations of high tenacity fibers, matrix resins and films, often making them more costly to produce.

Meeting the minimum ballistic performance requirements using only the above woven fabrics presents a challenge for ballistic armor manufacturers.

While many low cover factor (loosely woven) ballistic resistant fiber yarn fabrics provide satisfactory V50 performance at the desired areal density (vests fabricated therefrom can be shown to repeatedly impede projectiles from penetrating the vest material at velocities safely above the threshold values outlined in NIJ Standard-0101.04), they do not provide adequate backface deformation resistance.

Conversely, the use of higher cover factor (more tightly woven) ballistic resistant fiber yarn fabrics at the same vest areal density while improving backface deformation performance, often results in significant reduction in V50 performance, sometimes falling below the NIJ Standard-0101.04 velocities required for backface signature measurement.

While the addition of these layers has been shown to improve the backface signature performance of an armor material, they can often have a deleterious effect on V50 performance.

In addition, the resin adds to the weight and stiffness of the ballistic vest assembly.

Due to this “sidedness” these hybrid ballistic vest constructions can be inadvertently worn inside-out, or inserted the wrong way into a tactical vest, providing less than optimal protection from projectile threats.

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