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Liquid Armor the New Bulletproof Vest
kjh1 writes "Armor Holdings Inc. plans to start selling their 'liquid armor' next year. The new armor, originally envisioned to be spread on like peanut butter, is instead sprayed onto Kevlar in ultrathin coats. From the article: 'it's a mix of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. Together they produce a "sheer-thickening liquid" that stiffens instantly into a shield when hit hard by an object. It reverts to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates.'"
Ok, forget the bulletproof vests, because I'll never need one. But how much would it cost to coat your car in this stuff? And would it give extra protection?
Philosophy.
Can they produce gloves able to stand up to shark bites ?
How about gloves for butchers ?
Would they be cheaper to produce than the steel-ring gloves used today ?
Are they water proof ?
How do they react to heat; could they be used in motorcycle clothing ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
So basicly they're making military use custard (being gentle will let you penetrate it, but use force and you bounce off). Buug how will this stand up against a knife or a bayonet? I know in the modern era this is more or less mute, but it's still something I'd personally wonder about.
I like muppets.
I saw a thing on Brainiac where they filled a swimming pool full of cornflour and water and got a guy to walk on it... it was ok so long as he kept moving but as soon as he stopped he sank pretty quickly.
Getting out was pretty hard as the more he pulled the more it turned like concrete... pretty scary if you start sinking in this stuff and have nothing to hang on to!
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The problem is not only the bullet's ability to pierce the armour, but the energy it transfers through the armour. This company : http://www.d3o.com/ use a similar technique but instead of leaving it as liquid, they treat it in a way which turns it into a foam structure. I beat the crap out of a friend's elbows and knees with a shovel while he was wearing d30 stuff, and he didn't feel a thing. It's quite amazing.
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The article states that the material returns to a liquid state rapidly after pressure ceases (which I assume would help further with shock dissipation), but how fast is that? Combat will just require a different approach to breach the defence. Off the top of my head, it woould seem that if your clothing suddenly stiffens, you're vulnerable to attack, especially if you're in the middle of doing something dangerous that requires the use of your limbs.
I just read the novel "Map of Bones" by James Rollins, and his characters makes use of this Liquid Body Armor. He mentioned in the foreward that it was real technology, and that was the first time I heard about it.
It was a thrilling read, too!
That video is pretty neat. Maybe there could be an application on rigid surfaces like reinforced windows and such.
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I stand corrected. View the very nice clicky post at the beginning of the comments to understand how it really works.
The question is, can it be used (in sufficiently thick amount?) without hard-to-get materials like kevlar? I am really asking if you can make this at home. From the brief vid, it looked like point 5) above is very possible.
Bullets bounce off? That would transfer more momentum to the armor than if the bullets simply stopped. I wonder how well the liquid armor dissipates energy because you might be better off sticking with the untreated Kevlar. At least, I think your nuts are better protected with something else.
"Sintered Armorgel ; feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books"
Maybe they should ask Neal Stephenson about using that as an ad slogan.
2) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/05/0 9/wus09.jpg
That's the new suit they've been handing out to HMMWV turret gunners.
The suit is bullet & shrapnel proof, including the visor.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Nice stereotyping.
What if the prime reason for my big SUV with the big tires, and the skookum bush bar on the front is so I can say, go offroad? I grew up in a remote town, but now due to work I have to live in the city. I drive my bush beast on the road not to intimidate as you say, but rather for my own reasons. I like to throw my boat on the roof and go where few can go. My friends and I found a sweet de-activated logging road one day with trees growing in the middle of the road that were 2 meters tall. Sorry, but your honda civic can stay in the city. There was nobody around for prolly 15km. When I got back to work the next week, I was much less stressed out and misserable. Something about tossing a new propane cylinder in a fire puts a nice close to a sweet adventure! I believe in low impact offroading, but when the trees are in the middle of the road... fair game I say.
Now, thos SUV's with the low profile tires and chrome bush bars... I agree with you on that.
There is an interesting point in there, spray applications are characterized as extremely high sheer. It seems that the armor was basically saturated with this stuff, spray coating would probably be impossible, this stuff would turn into a rock in your sprayer. If this were to make it to an auto market it might have to be applied with a squeegee, or a dip process.
That is a very simplified view.
Many guns WILL knock you on your back when you fire them, if you aren't in a proper stance to handle the recoil.
Those same guns, even if the shooter is standing and holding the gun properly, will very well knock someone backwards who wasn't ready to be hit by something like that.
Granted, most of those guns aren't handguns, but that doesn't mean there are no handguns like that(And this is why they're not guns that just anyone can pick up and shoot safely with no training)
Another company, d3o Labs, has developed a similar substance, but they've been adapting it to sports applications -- ski racing suits, hockey pads, and sneakers.
Everyone has forgotten their classic SciFi.
Nice pair of Deerskin gloves with a layer of this inside would make brass knuckles so obsolete...
Didn't the personal shields in Dune have a similar purpose (stop fast-moving objects, allow small forces)? The way they got around this in Dune was to stab someone slowly. I imagine that's still possible with this armour, same way you can stab through custard+water or whatever.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Sorry, a minivan has even more room inside it for a soccer team than an SUV. Plus it's got lower bumpers (friendlier to others when you crash into their cars) and is goes by stricter car emissions standards rather than those for trucks. It's greener, safer for others (as well as yourself, they don't tip over as much as SUVs), and has more room.
A minivan can have every vehicle feature and comfort an SUV can. If style is being ungreen and dangerous to others, that's an ugly style.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather chance a massive bruise than a hole going through me, , potentially puncturing a vital organ. It's incredibly difficult to get blunt trauma of such impact that it creates internal bleeding that could kill you in less than 30 min. It's a small bullet, not a Mack truck. You can run away with a bruised calf muscle; you can't even walk when a bullet just shredded your calf into hamburger. This is a stupid argument.
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How well would this work as armor for motorcyclists? I spend a lot of time trying to find gear that's comfortable enough to wear as normal clothing. Both so that I'm comfortable on the bike, and so I don't have to spend so much time gearing up and down for each trip, even it it's only to the convenience store.
plus-good, double-plus-good