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SpectraandKevlar– Not a Fashion Statement
Over the years, many improvements have been made in military and policegarments to increase safety and create bullet proof body armor that is bothcomfortable and protective. However, in the past, being safe has meant acertain amount of bulk and discomfort, as well as added weight and mass forsoldiers and officers facing combat on the battle fields and in urban wars.The use of Kevlar, a registered trademark of DuPont, has made body armorlighter and easier to work with, but flexibility has still been a problem.Today, there is a new substance in use called Spectra, a composite materialthat is stronger, lighter, and more flexible than Kevlar, which is changing theface of bullet proof wear for our troops and police forces. What are themajor differences between Kevlar and Spectra, and what are the bigadvantages of the latter?Let’s first examine the structure of each of the two materials. Kevlar is ahigh strength, high performance fiber that, despite its many years of use inbullet proof clothing, is still not entirely understood. The best description of how it is believed to function is that the molecules form into sheets that thenstack themselves around the center of a fiber like spokes. The idea behindusing this as a bullet proof material was to stack several layers of thematerial together in a weave pattern. The weaving would then “catch” thebullet by allowing the fibers to break apart layer by layer and absorb thevelocity, slowing the bullet to a stop as it also dulled and flattened fromstriking the material. However, this was mostly effective when bullets wereslower and had less total velocity, making them easier to stop. Now, ourtroops and law enforcement officials face much more technically advancedweaponry with bullets flying at higher speeds and constructed from hardermetals. This means that Kevlar vests are stretched to capacity andsometimes even penetrated completely by these forceful weapons. The onlyanswer with this material is to thicken the layers of weave, which make thematerial even bulkier, heavier, and less flexible.Spectra is a completely different technology. The material is about 40%lighter than Kevlar, making it more comfortable from the start. On top of that, it is not a woven structure, meaning that several layers are notnecessary, further reducing weight and bulk. At the same time, Spectra isten times stronger than steel. So, what is this substance actually made outof that makes it compete with Superman for the title of strongest bullet proof material? The definition states that Spectra is a “thin, flexible ballisticcomposite made from layers of unidirectional fibers held in place by flexibleresins”. These layers are then sealed between two thin sheets of polyethylene film (think plastic wrap on your leftovers). Therefore, allmaterials used are light weight and extremely flexible, making movementand wearability more realistic for users. At the same time, it disperses theenergy of a bullet much faster across a wider area and with greaterefficiency, providing much more reliable protection against the higher velocity
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