Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (55210)	8/22/2006 8:43:58 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Ballistic Vest Under Armor Body Cooling Conductive body cooling system designed for use under body armor www.kool-suit.com New Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) enables flexible, comfortable armor August 13, 2006 Since warfare began, developing armor has been a balance between the need for protection and the need for comfort, flexibility and light weight. A new nanotechnology known as Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) created by scientists at ARL and UDTC looks set to provide the next generation of armor. STF has the ability to make ballistic fabrics highly resistant to penetration when impacted by a spike, knife or bullet without compromising their weight, comfort or flexibility. The potential applications of STF include a wide range of products such as body armor, vehicle armor, helmets, gloves and bomb blankets to protect soldiers and law enforcement officials plus myriad industrial safety applications all thr way through to protective clothing for motorcyclists. When the first products become available later this year, soldiers can expect to be much safer as the liquid body armor can be used in sleeves and pants, which are not usually protected by ballistic vests because they must stay flexible. Under active development for the past five years, STFs are special materials with nano-particles that exhibit properties normally associated with both solids and liquids, but are rarely found in the same material. Sometimes referred to as "liquid armor," the material is actually a nanotechnology that exists in a flexible, fluid-like state under normal conditions but adopts seemingly rigid qualities and becomes less penetrable when impacted. As a result, this special material can be applied to conventional ballistic fabrics or other materials used in armor applications, allowing them to remain flexible under normal wear, but simultaneously becoming resistant to penetration when impacted by a spike, knife or high velocity projectile or fragment. STF treated fabrics effectively spread the energy over a larger area. Developed by the University of Delaware's Center for Composite Materials, in partnership with the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, STF has been exclusively licensed to Armor Holdings. Extensive testing conducted by UDTC and ARL has demonstrated that when treated with STFs, a conventional ballistic fabric can resist penetration from an ice pick that would otherwise easily penetrate the fabric. However, further testing and applications in the field may be needed to understand fully the properties of STFs. In addition, fabrics treated with STF have been shown to reduce "back face deformation" (an indication of blunt trauma) from high energy ballistic impacts. Importantly, treating the fabric with this material has little or no effect on the look, feel, texture, weight or flexibility of the fabric. A Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) is the key component of the liquid body armor. Hard particles (nano-particles of silica) are suspended in polyethylene glycol, an inert, non-toxic thickening agent used in a variety of common products, like some ice creams. To make liquid armor, STF is soaked into all layers of a Kevlar vest. The Kevlar fabric holds the STF in place, and also helps to stop the bullet. The saturated fabric can be soaked, draped, and sewn just like any other fabric. Under normal conditions the particles flow with the liquid, but when heavily strained, the particles become rigid. When the stress is relieved, it goes back to a liquid. Page: 1 2 gizmag.com