Application 01 / Flexible panels
Fabric for soft armor panels
A soft armor panel is a stack of cross-plied UD layers pressed together and fitted into a carrier. The panel has to stop the threat, stay light enough to wear all shift, and keep working after the vest has been folded, sweated into and worn for years. That points at UD fabric rather than woven cloth.
The UD insert on top, with the carrier and cover fabric it is fitted into.
What this application asks of the fabric
- • Energy has to spread sideways fast. Cross-plied 0 and 90 degree UD layers pull a much larger area of fiber into stopping a single round than a woven sheet of the same weight does.
- • Weight is worn on a body, so areal density is the number the wearer feels. The whole engineering argument is reaching a level at fewer kilograms per square metre.
- • The panel must stay flexible. Layers are pressed together but the finished insert still has to bend with the torso.
- • The result must be provable. Buyers of soft armor almost always need a report against a named standard and a named round.
Line 01 / UHMWPE
Soft Armor UD Fabric for vest panels
Unidirectional UHMWPE laid at 0 and 90 degrees and resin bonded, supplied as continuous rolls 1.6 m wide and 100 m and up. Models SB130, SB160 and SB166-225. Layer counts below are for a pressed panel, not for loose fabric.
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- • NIJ certification applies to finished torso-worn body armor, not to fabric, so we never describe our fabric as NIJ certified.
- • SB166-225 has our only measured V50 figure: 13 layers at 3.0 kg/m2 gave 480.17 m/s against 9mm FMJ 124 grain, measured by the China Ordnance Equipment Test Center in October 2021.
- • Against a 17-grain (1.1 g) fragment simulating projectile at 5.3 kg/m2, V50 is approximately 580 m/s for SB160 and approximately 600 m/s for SB130, tested to GJB4300A-2012 or STANAG 2920.
Line 02 / Para-aramid
Aramid UD Fabric where stab protection is also required
Police and correctional buyers frequently need one panel that handles both a round and a blade. Para-aramid UD covers that: GDK200 is ballistic only at around 200 g/m2, GDKPRO is ballistic and anti-stab at around 220 g/m2, and Anti-Stab is stab only at around 220 g/m2. Rolls are 1.6 m wide.
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- • Ballistic and stab protection do not come from the same mechanism. A round is stopped by spreading energy across fiber; a blade is stopped by resisting a concentrated cut, which is why the anti-stab build differs.
How to choose between the two lines
UHMWPE UD. It reaches NIJ 0101.06 Level IIIA against .44 Magnum at just over 4.9 kg/m2, and our published layer counts for that level have fallen steadily as the fiber and resin system improved.
Para-aramid UD in the GDKPRO grade, which carries figures for NIJ 0101.06 Level IIIA and for NIJ 0115.00 stab levels 1 to 3 in the same product.
Para-aramid holds its properties at temperatures where UHMWPE does not. If your specification includes a raised temperature condition, say so in the enquiry and we will tell you which report matches.
Next step
Tell us the panel, not just the fabric
Send the protection level, the threat, the target areal density and the panel size you are pressing to. We will point you at the grade and the layer configuration that matches, and send the report that was shot in that configuration.