Over the years, many improvements have been made in military and police garments to increase safety and create bullet proof body armor that is both comfortable and protective. However, in the past, being safe has meant a certain amount of bulk and discomfort, as well as added weight and mass for soldiers and officers facing combat on the battle fields and in urban wars. The use of Kevlar, a registered trademark of DuPont, has made body armor lighter and easier to work with, but flexibility has still been a problem.
However today a new material called SPECTRA has been released on the market and SPECTRA is more flexible, lighter and stronger than KEVLAR. This new substance is changing the face of bullet proof wear for police and the military, but what are the differences and the big advantages of SPECTRA?
Kevlar is a high strength, high performance fiber that, despite its many years of use in bullet proof clothing, is still not entirely understood. If we examine the structure of the two we see that Kevlar is made from a high strength and high performance fiber. The idea behind using this as a bullet proof material was to stack several layers of the material together in a weave pattern. A more or less exact description is difficult but you should try to see it is that the molecules form into sheets that then stack themselves around the center of a fiber like spokes.
The woven material catches the bullets and the fibers break apart layer by layer and absorb the velocity. The bullets also get dulled and flattened when trying to penetrate the many different layers of the bullet proof material. This always has been a very effective method but nowadays the bullets are made of harder materials and they have a lot more velocity than in the past.
Due to these improvements in weaponry we are back to the point of the bulky, heavy and less flexible bullet proof material because the only solution to this advanced weaponry penetrating completely the vests is by adding more and more layers of Kevlar to the fabric.
Spectra is a completely new and different technology. Spectra is about 40% lighter than Kevlar which makes it a lot more comfortable. Spectra is not been woven which only helps reducing even more the weight and bulk as there is no need for several layers. - 17943
However today a new material called SPECTRA has been released on the market and SPECTRA is more flexible, lighter and stronger than KEVLAR. This new substance is changing the face of bullet proof wear for police and the military, but what are the differences and the big advantages of SPECTRA?
Kevlar is a high strength, high performance fiber that, despite its many years of use in bullet proof clothing, is still not entirely understood. If we examine the structure of the two we see that Kevlar is made from a high strength and high performance fiber. The idea behind using this as a bullet proof material was to stack several layers of the material together in a weave pattern. A more or less exact description is difficult but you should try to see it is that the molecules form into sheets that then stack themselves around the center of a fiber like spokes.
The woven material catches the bullets and the fibers break apart layer by layer and absorb the velocity. The bullets also get dulled and flattened when trying to penetrate the many different layers of the bullet proof material. This always has been a very effective method but nowadays the bullets are made of harder materials and they have a lot more velocity than in the past.
Due to these improvements in weaponry we are back to the point of the bulky, heavy and less flexible bullet proof material because the only solution to this advanced weaponry penetrating completely the vests is by adding more and more layers of Kevlar to the fabric.
Spectra is a completely new and different technology. Spectra is about 40% lighter than Kevlar which makes it a lot more comfortable. Spectra is not been woven which only helps reducing even more the weight and bulk as there is no need for several layers. - 17943
About the Author:
If you want to know more about Kevlar and Spectra make sure to visit our sites : Navajas | Linternas | Relojes Militares and Material Policial | Ropa de Caza | Chalecos Tcticos