A Review on the Performance and Comfort of Stab Protection Armor

Abstract

Stab-protective clothing is the most important component of safety equipment and it helps to save the lives of its wearers; therefore, it is designed to resist knife, nail, or needle attacks, especially to the upper body. In this paper, the essential requirements for stab-resistant armor are investigated based on an in-depth review of previous research and prototype test results. The combination of protection and comfort in armor vests is a particularly challenging task. Review of the state of the art technology responsible for the manufacture of stab-resistant clothes has revealed that their design and development should encompass the elements of comfort, freedom of movement, permeability, absorption, evaporation, and weight reductions to ensure excellent ergonomics and high wear comfort. The design as well as the production, weight, thickness, material types and properties, and the arrangement of scales determine the level of protection and comfort offered by stab-resistant vests. Currently, the production of stab-proof gear-based 3D printing technology is evaluated, using lightweight materials (aramid) in the form of segmented scales inspired by nature. As the protection performance and wear comfort of stab-proof gear is enhanced, the willingness of security, control, transport, custom, and correction officers to wear them can be significantly increased in an endeavor to ensure that fatal injuries will decrease significantly.

Stab-Resistant Polymers—Recent Developments in Materials and Structures

“…Stab-resistant vests have been shown to significantly reduce the number of fatal injuries due to stabbing [ 9 ]. However, stab-resistant body armor is mostly heavy and uncomfortable [ 10 ], besides the problem that it does not necessarily protect all relevant body area from knives and spikes, depending on the wearer’s body shape [ 11 ]. To motivate police and other people in potentially dangerous situations to wear stab-protection garments, lightweight body armor is necessary, ideally from drapable material with low thermal resistance and high air and water vapor permeability [ 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Sandwiching textiles with FDM Printing

“…Often, such stab-resistant body armor contains textile fabrics fully embedded in resin, making the system very stiff. On the other hand, it is well known that fixing the fibers to the fabric is very important in order to increase the stab-resistance of a protective garment [26,27]. Our recent approach aims at finding a compromise between the fully fixed, rigid composites and completely loose stacks of polymers and fabrics, as the textile fabric is partly fixed to the nubs on the lower layer.…”

Study on the mechanism and performance of 3D-printed PLA/epoxy composite for stab resistance

“…In gun control areas, there is a tremendous demand for body protection equipment such as stab-resistant clothing and anti-cut gloves. The research on stab-resistance technology still needs to be strengthened (Govarthanam et al , 2010; Nayak et al , 2018; Sitotaw et al , 2022; Hu et al , 2022).…”

“…The stab-resistant composite material differs from the material used for compression or large impact resistance. Because the stab-resistant material needs to be applied to the human body, complex structures need to be designed in smaller sizes (less than 10 mm) (Ahrendt et al , 2019; Sitotaw et al , 2022; Hu et al , 2022). Additive manufacturing technology can solve this problem, with rich structural design at a smaller scale to achieve unexpected effects and even broaden its application range (Bekas et al , 2019).…”