Ballistic vest

Abstract

The invention relates to a ballistic vest containing a stack of flexible fabrics and a stack of flexible unidirectional layers, in which the fabrics contain strong fibres of a first kind, the unidirectional layers contain strong fibres of a second kind, and in which the fibres in a unidirectional layer run essentially parallel and are disposed at an angle to fibres in an adjacent layer which is greater than 0 degrees, where in that the flexible fabric is a loose fabric and is located on the strike side of the vest. The percentages by weight of the loose fabrics and the stack of UD layers preferably is between 15:85 and 30:70%. In that case, a vest of areal density IGSS than 6 kg/m 2 can have such ballistic resistance as to stop an Action a bullet with a velocity of up to 437 m/s with a trauma to NIJ Standard of less than 44 mm.

1 . Ballistic vest containing a stack of flexible fabrics and a stack of flexible unidirectional layers, in which the fabrics contain strong fibres of a first kind, the unidirectional layers contain strong fibres of a second kind, and in which the fibres in a unidirectional layer run essentially parallel and are disposed at an angle to fibres in an adjacent layer which is greater than 0 degrees characterised In that the flexible fabric Is a loose fabric and Is located on a strike side of the vest.  
     
     
         2 . Vest according to  claim 1 , in which the loose fabric contains at least 3 floats.  
     
     
         3 . Vest according to  claim 1  or  claim 2 , in which the loose fabric is a twill weave.  
     
     
         4 . Vest according to any one of claims  1 - 3 , in which the percentages by weight of the stack of loose fabrics and the stack of UD layers is between 15:85 and 30:70%.  
     
     
         5 . Vest according to any one of claims  1 - 4 , in which the first and second stack together have an areal density of less than 6 kg/m 2  and in which the vest has such ballistic resistance as to stop an Action 3 bullet with a velocity of up to 437 m/s with a trauma to NIJ Standard of less than 44 mm.  
     
     
         6 . Vest according to any one of claims  1 - 4 . In which the first and second stack together have an areal density of less than 4.5 kg/m 2  and in which the vest has such ballistic resistance as to stop an Action 3 bullet with a velocity of up to 385 m/s with a trauma to NIJ Standard of less than 44 mm.  
     
     
         7 . Vest according to any one of claims  1 - 4 , in which the first and second stack together have an areal density of less than 5.2 kg/m 2  and in which the vest has such ballistic resistance as to comply with NIJ3 a  Standard 0101.03.  
     
     
         8 . Vest according to any one of claims  1 - 7 , in which the unidirectional layer contains mainly aramid or polybenzazole (PBO) fibres.  
     
     
         9 . Vest according to any one of claims  8 , in which the first and second stack together have an areal density of less than 4 kg/1m 2  and in which the vest has such ballistic resistance as to stop an Action 3 bullet with a velocity of up to 385 m/s with a trauma to NIJ Standard of less than 44 mm.  
     
     
         10 . Vest according to any one of claims  1 - 9  in which the fabric is a 5.1 twill weave fabric.