Scientists Working on Flexible Armor

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040429/ap_on_sc/hi_tech_body_armor_1

Scientists Working on Flexible Armor

Thu Apr 29,11:03 AM ET

By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE - Army scientists are working on a liquid body armor for clothing that stays flexible during normal use but can harden to stop a projectile when hit suddenly.

Researchers hope the liquid could be used in sleeves and pants, areas not protected by ballistic vests because they must stay flexible.

The liquid, hard particles suspended in a fluid, is soaked into layers of Kevlar, which holds it in place. Scientists recently had an archer shoot arrows at it to see how well the liquid boosted the strength of a Kevlar vest.

"Instead of the arrow going through the Kevlar, it is completely stopped by the Kevlar vest and sometimes just bounces right off," said Norman Wagner, a University of Delaware chemical engineering professor who is working on the project.
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Can't wait for everyone to be able to buy it at TJ Maxx.

Middle Ages (conquests, crusades, plagues, etc.)

Really good for use in jousting contests too.

Just ask the French, who were introduced to the yew bow at Agincourt.

:-)

:P

At Sluys and Crecy,
the flower of French Chivalry grew feathers.

I don't know whether flexible armour can be much help if you take a direct hit from a high-velocity bullet, for example. One of the major problems with getting hit by any weapon is the force of the impact. This was noticed early on, e.g. with the use of things like maces and warhammers back in the Middle Ages -- and with modern firearms, people can be seriously injured by the impact of bullets even if their vests prevent penetration. During the Roman era, and Middle Ages, armourers tried to come up with protection that could be flexible and still work against impacts -- for example by articulating plate armour, on leather straps or with cunning joints.

In terms of technology, this new development is pretty neat, though the weight/clumsiness of the armour is still something they'll have to deal with (a classic problem!) -- and overheating.

Another thing to remember is that in present-day wars, far more civilians are killed or wounded than soldiers ... the fact that civilians usually don't have access to protective gear is an important part of this. While it's understandable that people would be worried about adequate protection for our loved ones in the military -- this will only help a small fraction of those who are in danger.

I expect. Note, a whole lot of soldiers have survived explosions and lost extremities because their arms and legs can't be protected with inflexable kevlar plates.

In addition to that setup, a flexable armor, such as this, could have uses is situations where folks aren't in enough danger to want to sacrifice their agility by wearing heavy inflexable kevlar plates even over vital areas.

One of the reasons why the knee and elbow "cops" in pre-1400s armour were redesigned with "fans" or other projections to cover the sides of the joints. (Safety standards for modern re-enactment groups, like the Society for Creative Anachronism, generally insist on this kind of thing even if it compromises the "authenticity" of a combatant's costume.) I noticed that some troops seem to be wearing articulated hardshell knee-pads, though this is probably more for working in rough, rocky terrain than as real battle armour.

Agree with you that armour plates (especially if they're smaller, and contoured to be less cumbersome) are still going to be favoured into the future, to provide some rigid protection -- especially on the torso. As in the Wisby plate coats from the medieval era -- some of the same principles were used for flak jackets.

With good articulation one can build flexible joint armour even out of rigid materials -- properly-made metal armour actually bends more than the human body, and it should be possible to use similar designs with new plastics and ceramics -- but I guess it's a question of whether the material is light and strong enough. My guess is that they could come up with limb protection that could stop the slower, smaller stuff -- but nothing is guaranteed against a 50-calibre bullet, for example. If you get hit hard enough, you could still lose the limb, regardless of soft (or even hard) armour, though of course if it saved you from bleeding to death that would be way better than the alternative.

p.s. this is one of a couple of interesting articles about injuries to extremities that were posted earlier this week

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0428/p06s01-woiq.html


I don't know anything about the severity of those injuries (whether soft armour would have been helpful, etc.) -- they seem to feel the man with the shoulder wounds would have had some benefit, but that's just one case. Spaulders (and their more extensive counterpart, pauldrons) were featured on medieval plate armour to deal with this kind of problem, so it's really not much of a problem to design either hard or soft protection for that part of the body -- the wearers back didn't seem to complain about them being uncomfortable, the way they did about neck protection (gorgets and bevors), another area being looked at now.

re: the arrows stopped by the new fabric, I wonder if they were edged hunting arrows or conical (or bullet-shaped) target points? If they were the edged sort, there would be applications for knife protection. (This has been more difficult to achieve than one might think. A sharp knife can actually penetrate many kinds of bulletproof vests -- experiments with welded steel mail or tiny ceramic plates have been limited so far.)

brain injuries due to concussion or shearing of the brain from the force of the explosion. Maybe they will keep their limbs but their brains may still be damaged.

Kindof like Robocop