Materials in bulletproof vests

A bulletproof vest consists of a cover and an implant. The cover does not protect you from being shot, but the implant will protect you. The implant is made of extremely strong fibers that absorb and distribute the energy from a projectile throughout the vest. By distributing the energy, the impact strength – also called blunt trauma – is minimized, and therefore it will hurt less by being shot.

Please note that we are writing “less hurt”. Even though you protect your life with a bulletproof vest and even if you do not die of being shot, it does not mean that it won’t hurt. Because it hurts to be shot by a gunshot.

The fiber in the implants

The implants may consist of aramid (including Kevlar and twaron) or UHMWPE (EA-TEX and Dyneema). Regardless of which type of fiber the implant is made of, then the fibers are woven crosswise until they are impenetrable.
 

Degree of protection

Depending on how high the degree of protection is in the bulletproof implant; the implant can consist of different layers. The fewer layer, the lower degree of protection.

The degree of protection defines in NIJ standard 101.06 level IIIA (level 3A), which is the highest level within soft bulletproof vests – also called “Soft Armor”.
 

The composition of a bulletproof vest

A bulletproof vest is composed of ballistic fibers and when the ballistic fibers are composed, they need to be wrapped on. The wrapping of the ballistic fibers can take place in two separate ways – as described below.

Some manufacturers use rubber seal to secure that the fibers are keeping dry. The disadvantage is that the rubber seal is not possible to breath in, which means that the vest will be uncomfortable to wear for several hours.
All Elite Armor’s implants are sealed with a high-tech membrane that keeps the implants dry but still allows to breath.

Specially for EA-TEX

At Elite Armor we seal our EA-TEX implants with a membrane, which are very similar to Gore-Tex. This membrane ensures maximum breathability all the time. There will be placed a comfort foam which is produced of very soft material.

The comfort foam is placed between the implants and the seal of the implants – of course with the soft side against the body which means that the vest always is very comfortable to wear.
 

Covers

There are different covers for the bulletproof vests. Some covers have pockets on the chest, where it is possible to insert extra protection like hard armor plates.

Are you carrying a vest with hard armor plates, you will also be protected by being shot of e.g. a AK47.

Other types of covers include covers where there are a piece of cloth hanging down both in front and in the back – a kind of protection because a potential attacker will find it more difficult to grab the vest and pull it up which means that the stomach is not protected. Here we can suggest our RX2 model.

Buy a bulletproof vest here
 

The finished vest

When you have the finished implant, the implant must be insert into the cover. The cover is not bulletproof or stab resistant before inserting the implant.

A bulletproof vest is therefore composed of both an implant and a cover.