Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Continuous and nonuniform or irregular surface on layer or...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-08
2003-12-02
Ruddock, Ula C. (Department: 1771)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Continuous and nonuniform or irregular surface on layer or...
C428S911000, C442S134000, C442S135000, C442S164000, C442S169000, C002S002500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06656570
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to protective clothing, in particular clothing for protecting against puncture or projectile injuries, consisting of a plurality of fabric layers made from high-strength materials.
In the line of duty, police and other security forces are subject not only to the danger of projectile injuries but also increasingly to attacks with knives, daggers, and other puncture implements, which often have needle-like character. The resulting safety requirements for police forces cannot be adequately satisfied by conventional bulletproof vests, which often are part of the standard equipment of this group of individuals, since these vests do not provide sufficient protection against puncture injuries.
2. Description of Related Art
For this reason, special protective clothing has been developed that is primarily intended to offer protection against puncture injuries. There have also been attempts to produce clothing that protects against both projectile and puncture injuries, however. While many of the proposals meet the requirements of police forces, they are poorly suited for use when a high degree of physical mobility is required, due to their heavy weight and frequent lack of flexibility.
Moreover, police forces demand that protective clothing protect not only against injuries by knives, daggers, and similar puncture implements, but also against needle-like puncture implements, which are in part also employed in attacks on police.
Although various problem solutions, primarily involving the use of aramid woven fabrics either wholly or in part, have been suggested for manufacturing puncture-proof clothing, none has been completely satisfactory.
For example, GB-A 2 283 902 describes puncture-proof clothing constructed from aramid woven fabrics, with metal plates affixed to the surface. Such clothing has a low degree of wearing comfort, since it does not ensure the needed flexibility and also forces the wearer to accept the heavy weight. Protective clothing in a similar embodiment is described in WO-A 91-06 821.
In DE-C 4 407 180, the use of a metal insert embedded in a polyurethane matrix is proposed for puncture-proof clothing. This metal insert takes the form of a network-like structure of steel chains. The disadvantage of this type of puncture-proof clothing is that it offers good protection only from blade-type puncture implements such as knives, daggers, etc., but not from sharply pointed, needle-like implements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,231 describes a dense foamed-plastic-encased woven fabric made from high-strength aliphatic polyamide fibers, the fabric appearing to be suitable especially for clothing protecting against incisions. This embodiment cannot provide the puncture protection demanded by security forces.
This is also true for the puncture-proof clothing proposed by EP-A 224 425, which is produced from knitted fabrics made from aramid fibers. In this case as well, there are insufficient puncture protection characteristics. The proposed knitted fabric is more suited to incision protection.
Particularly breathable puncture-proof clothing, intended to be produced by employing a so-called climatic membrane made from dense woven fabric, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,689. The embodiment proposed in this case does not offer sufficient puncture-proof characteristics.
Puncture-proof clothing made from overlapping glass-fiber-reinforced plastic plates arranged on a textile base is described in WO 92-08 094. Due to its lack of flexibility, such protective clothing does not offer the desired wearing comfort.
Furthermore, several proposals have been made for protective clothing for combined puncture and bullet protection, in various embodiments.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,264 proposes the use of extremely dense woven fabrics made from relatively fine yarns. These are intended to provide protection in a similar manner against puncture and projectile injuries. This problem solution is not satisfactory, since the production of the fabrics is very expensive and the weaving at a high density can cause fiber damage, leading primarily to reduced retention characteristics for projectiles. Moreover, the puncture protection in this embodiment does not adequately meet the specifications of all countries.
In DE-A 4 413 969, puncture-proof clothing made from multiple layers of metal foils is proposed. By combination with laminates made from aramid-fiber woven fabrics, protection against bullets is also attained. In addition to the high cost of metal foils, this protective clothing also does not provide satisfactory wearing comfort due its low degree of flexibility. Moreover, the rustling caused by the metal foils is regarded as disagreeable when the clothing is worn. A similar embodiment of puncture-proof clothing is found in EP-A 640 807, which proposes fabrics made from narrow metal foil strips.
A package of woven fabrics, such as those made from aramid fibers, formed into a plate using a thermoplastic matrix resin, is described in EP-A 597 165. This relatively rigid structure does not offer the desired wearing comfort.
In WO 97-21 334, aramid fabrics coated with thermoplastic resins are proposed for combined puncture and bulletproof protective clothing. This embodiment does not allow puncture-proof clothing that meets the requirements of security forces in all countries in the acceptable weight ranges.
According to DE-A 4 214 543, clothing intended to provide combined protection against punctures and projectiles and also against impact is manufactured in the puncture-proofing layers from metal plates displaceable with respect to one another and forming the outer layer of the protective clothing. Underneath is a fabric package intended for bulletproofing. This protective clothing as well shows the usual disadvantages of metal plates: a low degree of flexibility and relatively heavy weight, thus adversely affecting wearing comfort.
In DE-U 94 08 834, a package of superimposed layers with alternating textile fabrics made from aramid fibers and metal netting is proposed for combined puncture and bullet protection. The disadvantage of this embodiment is the low degree of protection from needle-like implements.
WO 96-03 277 describes protective clothing containing at least one layer of a fabric to which a ceramic layer has been applied by plasma spray coating. While this type of protective clothing attains good protection against puncture and projectile injuries, the manufacture is complicated, due to the plasma spray coating process employed, and also uneconomical from a cost standpoint. Moreover, application of the ceramic layer can lead to a partial fusion of the ceramic particles by sintering, due to the high temperatures in the plasma, so that the protective action against puncture implements can suffer somewhat. Furthermore, there are also some problems with respect to abrasion resistance.
The use of abrasive materials has been proposed for protective clothing. According to GB-A 2 090 725, for example, the protective action against projectiles is intended to be increased if the outer layer of an antiballistic package contains abrasive material such as aluminum oxide, boron carbide, etc. Tests have shown that a layer of such a material does not have a positive effect on the protective action against projectiles. To what extent the puncture-proof characteristics can be improved using the proposed embodiment cannot be determined from the document. Moreover, it contains no information whatsoever concerning the amount of abrasive material or the process for manufacturing such a protective layer.
According to a proposal in U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,499, a very thin layer of abrasive material is applied to aramid yarns that are subsequently to be subjected to fibrillation. This is intended primarily to provide protection from puncture injuries by surgical instruments. The very thin layer disclosed in this document can provide no protection at all against injuries inflicted by knives.
Even using prior art abrasive materials, the desc
Bottger Christian
Fels Achim
Klingspor Christoph
Neu Steffen
Polligkeit Wolfgang
Ruddock Ula C.
Teijin Twaron GmbH
LandOfFree
Puncture-and bullet proof protective clothing does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Puncture-and bullet proof protective clothing, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Puncture-and bullet proof protective clothing will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3106742