CA1131401A - Protective shields - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT
A protective shield, such as a personal bullet-proof vest is formed from one or more layers of a high strength fabric backed by one or more sheets of an impact absorbing plastics material. The high strength fabric is a closely woven fabric made from aramid fibres of high tensile strength and high stretch resistance which is capable of resisting penetration by a bullet. The plastics material may be a foamed plastics material.

Description

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PROTECTIVE SHIELDS
This invention relates to a protective shield, particularly although not exclusively a bullet-proof shield.
5. According to the invention there is provided a protective shield to be used in front of a person's body to protect such person against ~njury by a bullet or other missile or moving object, said shield having one or more layers of a closely woven fabric which is made 10.- from aramid fibres of high tensile strength and high stretch resistance such as to be capable of resisting penetration by a bullet, and one or more sheets formed from an impact absorbing plastics material arranged on that side of said fabric which in use faces the person's 15. body.
The aramid material may that sold by Du Pont under the trade name Kevlar.
The impact absorbing plastics material may comprise one or more polycarbonate sheets and/or on~ or more 20. sheets of a foamed plastics material. Additionally, i desired an impact absorbing material constituting one or more layers of felted aramid fibxes may also be provided at the said side of the fabric.
If desired, impact absorbing material may also be 25. provided at ~he front of the said fabric, that is at the side thereof which in use faces away from the person~s * TRADEMARK

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body, such material being as mentioned in the preceding paragraph and/or comprising a layer of steel or like strong material.
The various layers of the shield may be secured 5. together by stitching and/or bonding and/or may be enclosed in a bag such as a plastics bag or fabric bag.
The shield may be shaped as desired and thus for example may be shaped to fit against a personls body.
In one embodiment the shield is in the form of a garment 10. such as a vest.
The invention will now be described further by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-Figs. 1 and 2 are front and back portions of one form 15. of a shield according to the,invention in the form of a vest; and Fig. 3 is a sectional representation to an enlarged scale o part of the shield.
The shield has front and back shaped portions A, B
20. which can be held together by engagement of Velcro !
(Registered Trade Mark) attachment devices on the ends of tabs C on the back portion B with co-operable Velcro attachment devices on pads D on the front portion. When ' the portions are held together they define a vest~-shaped 25. garment with a ront lower depending portion E to provide groin protection., Each portion A, B comprises a peripherally sealed .

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nylon bag F (Fig. 3) containing shaped layers, from front to back:
(1) Two sheets of fabric woven ~rom Kevlar (say Kevlar 29 or ~9 woven with 31-31 (waxp and weft) picks 5. per inch (2.54cms) from 1000 or 1500 denier yarn) with a layeE of thin flat steel elements, which may be hexagon shapedt secured between the Kevlar sheets, the steel elements and Kevlar sheets being bonded together.
10. (2) A number of layers of Kevlar fabric (as described above). Preferably 8 to 30 layers are used as individual fabric sheets stitched together and/or as pairs of sheets bonded together, separate such pairs being stitched together. Sixteen lndividual 15. fabric sheets with six bonded pairs may be used (giving a total of 28 sheets).
~3~ One or two (or more if desired) thin flexible polycarbonate sheets. One or more sheets of the transparent polycarbonate sold under the trade 20. name LEXAN may be used, the or each such sheet being of 0.75mm thickness.
(4) One (or more if desired) resiliently compressible sheet of a foamed plastics material. A foamed, cross-linked polyethylene such as that sold under 25. the trade name~PLASTAZOTE or EVAZOTE may be used.
The total thickness of the plastics sheet or TRADEMARK

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.!. sheets may be 0.5mm to 12mm.
With thls arrangement the vest when ~70rn by a person can effectively protect the person against in~ury when struck with a bulle~ or other missile or moving 5. object. In this respect, the Kevlar sheets act to prevent or limit penetration whilst the polycarbonate and foamed plastics sheets absorb impact shock and limit transmission thereof to the person's body.
It is of course to be understood that the invention 10. is not intended to be restricted to the details of the above embodiment and thus r for example, it will be appreciated that parameters such as the thickness of the various layers, the number of individual sheets in the layers, and so on will be selected in accordance - 15. with requirements.

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Claims (4)

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1. A protective shield to be used in front of a person's body to protect such person against injury by a bullet or other missile or moving object, said shield having one or more layers of a closely woven fabric which is made from aramid fibres of high tensile strength and high stretch resistance such as to be capable of resisting penetration by a bullet, and one or more sheets formed from an impact absorbing plastics material arranged on that side of said fabric which in use faces the person's body.

2. A shield according to claim 1, wherein the impact absorbing plastics material comprises one or more poly-carbonate sheets.

3. A shield according to claim 1, wherein the impact absorbing plastics material comprises one or more sheets of a foamed plastics material.

4. A shield according to claim 1, wherein the shield is in the form of a garment such as a vest.