WO2009156465A1

WO2009156465A1 - Method for testing ballistic protection equipment and associated dummy and protection

Info

Publication number: WO2009156465A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/057958
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jérôme Le Carpentier
Original assignee: Compagnie Europeenne De Developpement Industriel - Cedi
Priority date: 2008-06-25
Filing date: 2009-06-25
Publication date: 2009-12-30
Also published as: FR2933181A1; EP2304378A1; FR2933181B1

Abstract

A method for testing protective equipment (E) that affords protection against penetrating elements (bullets, penetrative side arms, etc.), comprising the following steps: (a) providing a dummy (M) with a region fitted with sensors (C), (b) positioning protection (P) in front of said region, (c) applying penetrating elements with a determined energy and determined dynamics to the region equipped with the protection and not fitted with the protective equipment, and obtaining from the sensors first measurements of mechanical parameters resulting from the action of the penetrating elements, (d) applying the penetrating elements with a determined energy and determined dynamics to the region equipped with the protection and to which the protective equipment is fitted, and obtaining from the sensors second measurements of said mechanical parameters resulting from the action of the penetrating elements, and (e), by processing the first and second series of measurements, determining a level of protection afforded by the protective equipment. The invention also proposes an instrumented dummy provided with such protection, and the protection in question.

Description

"METHOD FOR TESTING BALISTICAL PROTECTION EQUIPMENT, AND ASSOCIATED MANIKIN AND PROTECTION"

The present invention generally relates to clothing or equipment for protecting people against shooting, and in particular the design of bullet-proof vests or other ballistic screens to have well-defined protection characteristics. It also aims to protect against penetrating weapons (punches, knives, ice picks, etc.). At present, to measure the effectiveness of such equipment for protection against bullets, or against blows with piercing objects such as knives, ice picks, etc., is used (especially according to NIJ standard) ) a block of Plastiline®, which is a paste of standardized hardness, and more particularly a block of Plastiline® with a weight of 80 kg maintained at a temperature of 20 ° Celsius or equivalent Fahrenheit.

The equipment to be tested (specimen) is fixed on this block using straps, and a shot is made in the test tube at a determined distance (usually 5 meters for handguns and 10 meters for weapons called shoulder), this shooting being carried out using a shooting bench firing bullets of normalized weight at a speed also normalized. To satisfy the approval requirements, the equipment tested must fulfill two conditions:

- first stop the shot fired by the shooting bench, and then be such that the maximum depth of the impression of the shock in the block of Plastiline® located immediately after the equipment does not exceed typically 44 mm, this depth being measured using a vernier caliper.

It should be noted that this depth parameter may vary according to the wishes of the client.

This methodology has several limitations and disadvantages.

In the first place, the results that it makes it possible to obtain are not significant from the point of view of the physical immunity of the wearer.

In addition, the reproducibility of the tests is far from guaranteed, in particular because the properties of the Plastiline® block are likely to change significantly from one shot to another (in particular because the impact of a ball raises the temperature, softening Plastiline®, making it more prone to widening on the next impact). It can also happen that the environmental conditions of the test laboratory (temperature, etc.) can evolve during a shooting sequence, again modifying the properties of Plastiline®.

Another disadvantage of this known test method is that it is unable to restore any result in terms of energy shock and vibration behind the equipment, and therefore no result in traumatic risk for the subject who will wear the equipment.

It is also known from the patent application WO

2007/138080 in the name of the Applicant, an equipment and a method for testing and designing protection equipment against blows. According to this patent application, one applies shots of energy well determined on a dummy equipped with protective equipment to be tested and instrument to determine impact energy for protection.

This known technique is, however, impossible to transpose to ballistic tests. Indeed, ammunition impacting the protective equipment to be tested at a very high speed are likely to pass through it and irreparably damage the instrumented manikin, being specified here that the cost of such a manikin is extremely high. This risk is all the greater because we are trying today to develop successive tests of increasingly light protective equipment, meaning that some equipment tested may be unsuitable for stopping for sure. projectile.

Finally, with regard to penetrating knives, the approach described in the aforementioned document WO 2007/138080 is fully applicable. It may, however, fail to prevent damage to the instrumented dummy under the effect of actual perforations during testing.

The present invention therefore aims to overcome these limitations of the state of the art.

To this end, it proposes, according to a first aspect, a method for testing protective equipment with respect to piercing elements such as bullets or penetrating white weapons for the human being, comprising the following steps:

(a) providing a manikin at least one region of which is equipped with sensors,

(b) placing in front of said area a manikin guard, (c) applying piercing elements with a determined energy and kinematics to said region of the dummy equipped with said manikin protection and without protective equipment, and obtaining from the sensors a first series of measurements of mechanical parameters resulting from the action of piercing elements,

(d) applying piercing elements according to a determined energy and kinematics to said region of the manikin equipped with the dummy protection and on which the protective equipment is arranged, and obtaining from the sensors a second series of measurements of said mechanical parameters resulting from the action of the piercing elements, and (e) by treatment of the first and second series of measurements, determine a degree of protection provided by the protective equipment.

Some preferred but non-limiting aspects of this method are the following: the manikin protection comprises a defined number of ballistic fiber sheets.

- The manikin protection includes a thick deforming shield of synthetic material. step (c) is implemented in an initial phase of calibration of the protected dummy common to the testing of several protective equipment.

According to a second aspect, an instrumented dummy is proposed according to the invention for the testing of protective equipment with respect to piercing elements such as bales or perforating knives, the manikin comprising in at least one region to be exposed to piercing elements according to an energy and a kinematics determined a series of sensors, characterized in that it further comprises a manikin protection device placed in front of said region and designed to protect the manikin and the sensors against deterioration or destruction by the action of said perforating elements .

In addition, according to the invention, a protective device for an instrumented dummy intended for the testing of protective equipment with respect to piercing elements, such as bales or piercing white weapons for the human being, is proposed. characterized in that it comprises a mechanical structure sufficiently attenuating the energy of the piercing elements to prevent the deterioration or destruction of the instrumented dummy under the action of said piercing elements provided for such a test.

Finally, there is provided an assembly for testing a ballistic protection equipment, characterized in that it comprises an instrumented dummy comprising in at least one region intended to be exposed to piercing elements such as bullets or perforating white weapons according to a determined energy and kinematics, a series of sensors, and at least two manikin protection devices each adapted to be placed in front of said region and designed respectively to protect the manikin and the sensors against deterioration or destruction under the action of perforating elements with kinematics and / or different energies. The application of piercing elements can be in particular a shooting of bullets or the displacement, with a speed and a determined force, of perforating white weapons (punch, knife, ice pick, etc.)

The invention can also be applied to non-lethal bullet shooting such as rubber bullets. In this case, depending on the energy of the shot received, the protection of the manikin may be provided, or omitted. It may be the same for the test of low energy perforating knives.

Other aspects, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: the single figure is an exploded perspective view of a test equipment usable according to the present invention.

Referring to the figure, there is shown a mannequin M equipped in a manner known per se of a number of sensors C arranged in a test region, corresponding in particular to the thorax and the abdomen of the human body.

These sensors are for example capable of measuring the following parameters:

- pressure force perpendicular to the surface of the manikin, - pressure force parallel to the surface of the manikin,

- local rotation of the surface of the manikin around an axis normal to this surface,

- bending moment, - acceleration-deceleration of the region of the manikin in which the sensor is located, in particular during an impact. The measurements provided by such sensors and suitably processed provide a traumatological indication of the effect of the impacts on the human body. In order to avoid the risk mentioned in the introduction, deterioration or destruction of such instrumented dummy in the case where the test piece would provide insufficient protection, and in particular would be perforated by the projectile fired, the manikin is equipped instrumented M of a manikin protection P which is permanently applied in front of the test region equipped with the sensors C.

This manikin protection consists for example of a superposition of a fixed number of flexible sheets of ballistic fiber (typically Kevlar® sheets) of thickness also determined, the sheets being stacked and retained in an appropriate holding pocket, or a rigid shielding of a given thickness, for example a thick deforming shield made of polyethylene.

In any case, this dummy protection is designed by calculation and or experimentation so that, with the contemplated projectile energies, it provides sufficient protection for the instrumented dummy against any deterioration or destruction, by sufficiently attenuating these energies.

This manikin protection remains permanently on the test region of the manikin for ballistic tests, but can advantageously be removed when for example it is desired to use the manikin for the test of protection against blows, in particular according to the patent application WO 2007 / 138080. The test of a protective equipment E such as a bulletproof vest in the present example is carried out according to the invention:

by applying predefined shots of projectiles to the manikin M equipped with said manikin protection P and devoid of the protective equipment, to obtain from the sensors C a first series of measurements of mechanical parameters (forces, displacements, moments, accelerations, etc.) resulting from the impact of the projectiles,

by applying the same predefined shots on the manikin M equipped with the manikin protection P and on which this time the equipment to be tested E is arranged, to obtain from the sensors a second series of measurements of said mechanical parameters resulting from the impact of the projectiles.

It will be noted here that the first series of measurements can be collected either immediately before the equipment test or during an initial phase of calibration of the manikin equipped with the protection P, in which case the first measurements are calibration for later use for different equipment tests.

The second series of measurements is then processed in relation to the first series of measurements, using an appropriate calculator, to derive the effect of protection actually provided by the equipment E in progress. test.

It can be simple subtractive calculations, but also any other appropriate calculation implementing the first series of measurements and the second series of measurements on the basis of a mathematical model capable of compensate for the effect of manikin protection in the manner of a tare.

Thanks to the present invention, it is possible to use a conventional manikin and its sensors in the continuity and without the risk of seeing them deteriorated or destroyed by a perforating shot, while using a test procedure much more rigorous than that implemented for example according to the NIJ standard and allowing for the first time to translate the results recorded during a shot at trauma data for the subject using the protective equipment.

The ballistic protection equipment that can be tested according to the present invention, in particular for homologation purposes, is very diverse. This may include clothing (bulletproof vests, etc.), removable accessories (bulletproof shields, etc.), bullet-proof cases, etc.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described and shown, but the skilled person will be able to make many variations and modifications.

In particular, the term "manikin" refers to any block of material of any shape, but of a corpulence and a density of the same order of magnitude as those of the human being.

Thus it may be for example a block of material of a size and weight similar to those of the trunk or chest of a human being.

In addition, we can equip the dummy protections of different mannequins depending on the type of weapon used for the test. For example, for the testing of protective equipment subject to handgun fire (for example up to 44 magnum or 50 magnum), a flexible manikin protection consisting of a stack of Kevlar®, while for the testing of equipment subject to firearms fire, one can use a polyethylene rigid dummy protection of appropriate thickness to avoid any risk of perforation. Of course, many variations can be made to the above description. In particular, those skilled in the art will be able to make the necessary adaptations for the application of the invention to the case of perforating knives, if necessary by referring to the description of document WO 2007/138080 for securing the manikin to shots of such weapons according to kinematics (speed / strength) determined.

Finally, for ballistic tests with non-lethal bullets such as rubber bullets, a person skilled in the art will be able to adapt the manikin for placing or not protecting therein, in particular as a function of the risk of deterioration of said manikin by the impacts of such bullets. through the equipment to be tested.

Claims

1. A method of testing protective equipment (E) against piercing elements such as bullets or penetrating white weapons for humans, comprising the following steps:

(a) providing a manikin (M) of which at least one region is equipped with sensors (C),

(b) placing in front of said region a manikin protection (P),

(c) applying piercing elements with a determined energy and kinematics to said region of the dummy equipped with said manikin protection and without protective equipment, and obtaining from the sensors a first series of measurements of mechanical parameters resulting from the action of piercing elements,

The method of claim 1, wherein the dummy protection (P) comprises a defined number of ballistic fiber sheets.

The method of claim 1, wherein the dummy protection (P) comprises a thick deforming shield of synthetic material.

4. Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein step (c) is implemented in an initial phase of calibration of the protected dummy common to the test of several protective equipment.

5. An instrumented dummy for testing protective equipment (E) with respect to perforating elements such as bales or perforating knives, the dummy (M) comprising in at least one region intended to be exposed to perforating elements according to a given energy and kinematics a series of sensors (C), characterized in that it further comprises a manikin protection device (P) placed in front of said region and designed to protect the manikin and sensors against deterioration or destruction by the action of said perforating elements.

The manikin of claim 5, wherein said manikin pad (P) comprises a defined number of ballistic fiber sheets.

A manikin according to claim 5, wherein said manikin pad (P) comprises a thick deforming shield of synthetic material.

8. Protective device for an instrumented dummy for the testing of protective equipment against piercing elements such as bullets or penetrating white weapons for the human being, characterized in that it comprises a mechanical structure capable of attenuating the energy of the piercing elements to bring this energy to a level compatible with the mechanical integrity of the instrumented dummy, so that the deterioration or destruction of the instrumented dummy under the action of said perforating elements provided for such a test is avoided.

9. Protection device according to claim 8, which comprises a defined number of ballistic fiber sheets.

10. Protective device according to claim 8, which comprises a thick deforming shield of synthetic material.

11. A set for the testing of ballistic protection equipment (E), characterized in that it comprises an instrumented dummy (M) comprising in at least one region intended to be exposed to piercing elements such as bullets or penetrating weapons with a given energy and kinematics a series of sensors (C), and at least two dummy protection devices (P) each adapted to be placed in front of said region and respectively designed to protect the manikin and the sensors against deterioration or destruction under the action of perforating elements with kinematics and / or different energies.