A REVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF BALLISTIC NEEDLE-PUNCHED FELTS

As part of the continuing effort to improve ballistic materials for personnel armor, the fiber and fabrication parameters, dynamics of felt impact, and predictive equations attempting to connect ballistic resistance to known measurable parameters were reviewed for needle-punched felts. The ballistic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Laible, Roy C, Henry, Malcolm C
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Ballistics
BODY ARMOR
DENSITY
FELTS
MANUFACTURING
TERMINAL BALLISTICS
Textiles
THICKNESS
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Summary:As part of the continuing effort to improve ballistic materials for personnel armor, the fiber and fabrication parameters, dynamics of felt impact, and predictive equations attempting to connect ballistic resistance to known measurable parameters were reviewed for needle-punched felts. The ballistic resistance of needle-punched felts at low areal densities was found to be superior to that of any other known material. On the other hand, at increased areal densities and against higher velocity missiles, other materials become competitive. The extent to which needle-punched felts maintain their superiority to other materials at moderate areal densities is dependent upon certain fiber and fabrication properties. The highest tenacity polyamide fibers are currently the best available material. In the case of fabrication, a relatively low degree of needling furnishes the best ballistic properties. In general, the thicker the felt that can be tolerated (at the same weight and areal density), the better the ballistic resistance. In addition, it is apparent that the level of ballistic protection varies depending upon the method of attaining the desired thickness. The need is shown for additional work to determine the effect of fiber properties such as fiber denier, molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, and elongation upon the ballistic properties of the resulting felts. This work, in turn, will depend upon the availability of model fibers in which these parameters can be studied independently.