PROTECTIVE SHIELDS

ECRANS PROTECTEURS

English 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.

Claims

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CLAIMS
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.

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
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