Soft body armor having enhanced abrasion resistance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9562744-B2
Application number	US-45618509-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2009
Priority date	Jun 13, 2009
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

Flexible composite materials and soft body armor formed therefrom having enhanced abrasion resistance. The materials and armor include at least one first separator layer positioned between adjacent fabric layers, or between a fabric layer and a cover, where the separator layer spaces the adjacent fabric layers or the fabric layer and cover apart from each other without being laminated or otherwise attached or connected to either the layers or the cover such that they are free to move relative to each other.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. Soft body armor comprising:
a cover,
at least one stack of a plurality of woven fabric layers positioned within said cover,
at least one stack of a plurality of second fabric layers also positioned within said cover and being adjacent to said stack of a plurality of woven fabric layers, said second fabric layers comprising high tenacity fibers having a tenacity of at least about 7 g/d, and wherein said second fabric layers comprise unidirectionally oriented non-woven fabrics;
a first separator layer positioned between said stack of woven fabric layers and said stack of second fabric layers, said first separator layer consisting of a lightweight, thin and flexible thermoplastic film having an areal density of from 15 g/m 2 to 50 g/m 2 , said first separator layer not being laminated or otherwise attached or connected to either of said stack of woven fabric layers or said stack of second fabric layers, said first separator layer spacing said stack of woven fabric layers and said stack of second fabric layers apart from each other such that said two stacks of layers are unattached to each other and are free to move relative to each other, and
a second separator layer positioned between said stack of second fabric layers and said cover, said second separator layer consisting of a lightweight, thin and flexible thermoplastic film having an areal density of from 15 g/m 2 to 50 g/m 2 , said second separator layer not being laminated or otherwise attached or connected to either of said stack of second fabric layers or said cover, said second separator layer spacing said stack of second fabric layers and said cover apart from each other such that said stack of second fabric layers and said cover are unattached to each other and are free to move relative to each other.

2. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein said second fabric layers consist of cross-plied unidirectionally oriented non-woven fabrics, and wherein said stack of the plurality of second fabric layers consists of said cross-plied unidirectionally oriented non-woven fabrics.

3. The soft body armor of claim 2 wherein each of said second fabric layers is formed from a plurality of plies of unidirectionally oriented non-woven fabric, said plies being arranged such that they are angled with respect to each other.

4. The soft body armor of claim 3 wherein each of said second fabric layers consist of fibers and a matrix resin wherein said resin comprises from 10 percent to about 25 percent by weight, based on the total weight of the fibers and resin matrix.

5. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein the woven fabric layers of said at least one stack of woven fabric layers are not bonded to each other and are free to move with respect to each other, and wherein the fabric layers of said stack of second fabric layers are not bonded to each other and are free to move with respect to each other, wherein a plastic film is not laminated or attached to any layer or group of layers in the stack of second fabric layers.

6. The soft body armor of claim 4 wherein said matrix resin is selected from the group consisting of a thermoplastic polyurethane resin, a nitrile rubber and mixtures thereof.

7. The soft body armor of claim 4 wherein said matrix resin comprises thermoplastic polyurethane resins, said thermoplastic polyurethane resins comprising a copolymer mix of polyurethane resins, said copolymer mix comprising more than one polyurethane copolymer resin.

8. The soft body armor of claim 7 wherein said thermoplastic polyurethane resin is applied as a dispersion in water, the dispersion having a relative density of 1.05 g/cc at 23 ° C. and a viscosity of 40 cps at 23 ° C.

9. The soft body armor of claim 4 wherein said matrix resin is elastomeric and comprises a nitrile rubber terpolymer comprising an acrylonitrile monomer, a butadiene monomer and either an N-methylol acrylamide monomer or a carboxylic acid monomer, and wherein the fibers are fully embedded in the matrix resin.

10. The soft body armor of claim 3 wherein each of said second fabric layers consist of fibers and a matrix resin, wherein said fibers of said second fabric layers are selected from the group consisting of high tenacity polyethylene fibers, aramid fibers and blends thereof and wherein said resin comprises more than 5 percent to about 40 percent by weight of the second fabric layers, based on the total weight of the fibers and resin matrix.

11. The soft body armor of claim 3 wherein said woven fabric layers comprise aramid fibers and said second fabric layers comprise aramid fibers.

12. The soft body armor of claim 11 wherein said second fabric layers comprise a matrix resin selected from the group consisting of a thermoplastic polyurethane resin, a nitrile rubber and mixtures thereof.

13. The soft body armor of claim 12 wherein said cover comprises a rip stop nylon woven fabric and contains compartments or pockets within which the at least one stack of a plurality of woven fabric layers and the at least one stack of a plurality of second fabric layers are positioned.

14. The soft body armor of claim 3 wherein said woven fabric layers comprise aramid fibers, said second fabric layers comprise a plurality of plies, said plies comprising two layers consisting of unidirectionally oriented non-woven fabrics of aramid fibers in an elastomeric nitrile rubber matrix resin, which two layers of said plies are cross-plied with respect to each other and wherein said thermoplastic film of said first separator layer and said thermoplastic film of said second separator layer are each a polypropylene film.

15. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein said woven fabric layers comprise high tenacity polyethylene fibers having a tenacity of at least about 30 g/d.

16. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein said cover comprises a woven nylon fabric, and wherein said fibers of said second fabric layers are selected from the group consisting of high tenacity polyethylene fibers, aramid fibers and blends thereof.

17. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein the woven fabric layers of the stack of a plurality of woven fabric layers are not bonded to each other; and wherein the second fabric layers of the stack of a plurality of second fabric layers are not bonded to each other except for individual plies that form a layer of unidirectionally oriented non-woven fabric, wherein said woven fabric layers comprise aramid fibers or polyethylene fibers, and said second fabric layers comprise aramid fibers or polyethylene fibers.

18. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein said thermoplastic film of said first separator layer and said thermoplastic film of said second separator layer are each a polypropylene film.

19. The soft body armor of claim 1 wherein each of said first separator layer and said second separator layer is a biaxially oriented polypropylene film.

20. The soft body armor of claim 17 wherein the thickness of said first separator layer and said second separator layer is from about 1 to about 2 mils (about 25 to about 51 μm), and wherein said thermoplastic film of said first separator layer and said thermoplastic film of said second separator layer are each a polypropylene film.

21. The soft body armor of claim 16 wherein the thickness of said first separator layer and said second separator layer is less than or equal to about 1.5 mils (38 μm), and wherein said thermoplastic film of said first separator layer and said thermoplastic film of said second separator layer are each a pol

Assignees

• Wagner Lori L
• Murray Jr Harold Lindley
• Waring Brian H
• Steenkamer David A
• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Wagner Lori L
• Murray Jr Harold Lindley
• Waring Brian H
• Steenkamer David A

Classifications

• B32B5/024

  Woven fabric · CPC title

• Y10T29/49826

  Assembling or joining · CPC title

• B32B27/12

  next to a fibrous or filamentary layer · CPC title

• B32B5/12

  characterised by the relative arrangement of fibres or filaments of {different layers, e.g. the fibres or filaments being parallel or perpendicular to each other} · CPC title

• F41H5/0485

  all the layers being only fibre- or fabric-reinforced layers · CPC title