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.'"

Comments

Other Applications

[Umbral Blot]

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?

Re:Other Applications

[Anonymous Coward]

Try as I might, complete with diagrams and models, I could not get across the idea that this was a good thing, and that had the car not done the crumpling, the passengers would have - and who cares if the car's repairable when everyone in it's dead?

This is a common fallacy when people have just a rudimentary understanding of physics and no other applicable knowledge. A car that crumples well is only definitely better when it's car vs much more massive stationary solid object (e.g., a rock face). When it's two cars, however, it's more like the game theory example of the prisoner's dilemma. If both cars crumple well, then it's fairly good for both. If, however, one vehicle is both more rigid and more massive—something common to older cars—then the situation is greatly weighted in that vehicle's favor. An extreme example of this would be an M1 Abrams vs a small Toyota.

Thus, if you don't give a shit about the other guys as long as your kids are safe, and you're not a drunk/wreckless driver that is likely to slam into a building/rock face/telephone pole/whatever, the safest option may well be the biggest, heaviest vehicle with a strong frame that you can possibly find.

Re:Other Applications

[AndersOSU]

The real selling point of this stuff in car finishes wouldn't be that your car is now bullet proof (although that would make a good bullet point in the brochure.)

Consider this:

We drove this new Ford(TM) Mustang(TM) with DuPont(TM) Protectoguard(TM) coating on the Jersy turnpike, for 200 miles, in construction, behind a Peterbuilt(TM) dumptruck. We recorded 390 discrete stone strikes. But thanks to the Miricles of Science (TM) there isn't a single paint chip in the finish. Blah Blah Blah. Now that's a BOLD move.(TM)

Magic Chocolate

[dustpuppy]

... they found that the materials worked best when painted on Kevlar in ultrathin coats. By holding the fibers tight like a flexible glue, the compound spreads out the impact of a blow better than fibers alone.

Imagine the practical jokes you could play with this stuff ... smear a thin coating on eggs and watch as your housemate tries to crack them in the morning. Or smear it on a trampoline ... the more they try and jump up and down, the less bounce they get. Or if you could blow bubbles with this stuff ... would you be able to pop them?

Re:Magic Chocolate

[Ohreally_factor]

I'm wondering if you could effectively immobilize someone wearing this armor by shooting them with a sonic canon.

Gloves

[Joebert]

While liquid armor seems tailor-made for combat personnel or police, the company is initially targeting prisons because the fabric resists punctures. That means it can protect guards from stabbings, something even a top-of-the-line bulletproof vest can't do.

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 ?

Custard

[Turn-X Alphonse]

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.

Re:Oobleck

[tumbleweedsi]

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!

A Similar idea

[07734]

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.

Re:Video link

[Agent00Wang]

That video is pretty neat. Maybe there could be an application on rigid surfaces like reinforced windows and such.

Re:Gotchas

[Frightening]

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.

Snow Crash

[Dr_Barnowl]

Sounds like the stuff that Hiro Protagonist wears to deliver pizza..

"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.

Re:American SUV?

[Fishead]

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.

Gloves...

[waferhead]

Everyone has forgotten their classic SciFi.

Nice pair of Deerskin gloves with a layer of this inside would make brass knuckles so obsolete...

Re:Video link

[Dun Malg]

I'd also expect the DuPont company to try to bring this to market - maybe in their auto paints?

Sorry? What use is a paint that stays liquid until struck by a sharp blow?