Kevlar — stronger than steel and bullet-resistant
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 25, 2004
RICHMOND, Va. — Since I take a few shots in my work as Furniture/Today's bedding writer, I thought it might be a good idea to try out the same body armor that protects U.S. soldiers patrolling the dangerous streets of Baghdad.
DuPont employees at the company's ballistics test lab here strapped me snugly into the Interceptor Outer Tactical Vest (OTV) produced by Point Blank Body Armor, the company that supplies the U.S. military. The body armor is the lightest, most technologically advanced protective vest ever issued in the history of the U.S. armed forces, the company says.
The body armor, and the helmet that I donned, are both constructed of DuPont Kevlar brand fiber, which, pound for pound, is five times stronger than steel and is bullet-resistant.
As I looked around the testing lab, where DuPont technicians regularly test their products with a wide variety of bullets, I pondered the key distinction between a "bullet-proof" vest and one that is "bullet-resistant."
My Interceptor vest could be outfitted with ceramic plates that would stop the 7.62-millimeter rounds fired by the AK-47 rifles common in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I didn't slip them into my vest. Thus, I would have been protected against small-arms fire, but would have been vulnerable to an armor-piercing round.
Although reasonably confident in the bullet-stopping properties of my vest, I wasn't ready to provide a human target for the DuPont technicians. Actually, I couldn't have been in safer hands. The DuPont technicians wouldn't let me get anywhere near a loaded gun, let alone fire one at me. Safety is always a serious concern at DuPont. The company believes that all injuries and occupational illnesses, as well as safety and environmental incidents, are preventable, and its goal for all of those is zero.
The company has especially stringent safety requirements in place at the ballistics lab, where the shots are only fired in a locked, empty room. Technicians outside the room operate the universal gun mount that can fire many different types of bullets.
I watched from outside as a 9-millimeter bullet was fired into a vest made with Kevlar, which it failed to penetrate.
Thousands of law enforcement officers can testify to the life-saving properties of vests made with Kevlar. There are currently about 2,800 members of the Survivors Club, sponsored by the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police and DuPont Kevlar. Those officers survived potentially fatal or disabling injuries by wearing body armor. The club publicizes the stories of those who have survived firearm assaults and attacks with knives, clubs, chains and other weapons. The goal is to reduce death and disability by encouraging increased wearing of personal body armor.
As I took off my body armor, I was thankful that the only shots fired at me are of the verbal nature. And I had a new appreciation of the value of body armor for those who go in harm's way to protect me and my way of life.
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