Super-strong body armour in sight

BBC News ^ | 23 October 2007 | Paul Rincon

[Freeport]

A new type of carbon fibre, developed at the University of Cambridge, could be woven into super-strong body armour for the military and law enforcement.

The researchers say their material is already several times stronger, tougher and stiffer than fibres currently used to make protective armour.

The lightweight fibre, made up of millions of tiny carbon nanotubes, is starting to reveal exciting properties.

Carbon nanotubes are hollow cylinders of carbon just one atom thick.

The new material was developed by a group at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at Cambridge.

It has emerged from efforts to create the world's strongest man-made fibre

[ovrtaxt]

yeah baby

[taxed2death]

If I ever had a chance to “do it all over again”...I think I’d get into material sciences.

Some of this stuff is way cool.

[Andy from Beaverton]

Check out this amazing stuff that can even catch comet dust: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html

[Freeport]

Yep. Aerogel is great stuff! Been around for 30+ years now...

[gridlock]

The Democrats will start whining about the fact our troops in Iraq don’t have this armor by this afternoon.

[P8riot]

But how do you cut it?

[SoldierMedic]

If it’s stronger and lighter than the IBA, I’m all for it, but if it’s heavier, that’s really going to open up a debate of “Life Saving Ability” vs “How fast can I move, how much can I carry?” that I’d rather just avoid.

[Freeport]

Probably like Kevlar... With scissors / blades. The stuff does cut. That’s why a Kevlar vest is no protection against a knife.

[M203M4]

Plenty of room for improvement and customization with this tech too - preferential orientation of tube bundles; custom distributions of single-wall and multi-wall nanotubes; dopants and physisorbed impurities incorporating strong electrical anisotropy for functions, and/or hastening mechanical response to tactile input; full coverage damage sensors for rapidly locating wounds, estimating their severity, and remotely sharing this data with command; etc.

If at times it seems that certain classes of materials promise to "do everything", it is only because the number of novel variables one can control is so large.

[Dead Corpse]

The really cool part about it is that it should also conduct electricity fairly well. Cop tries to taze you, taze him back...

[Freeport]

Carbon is much lighter than Kevlar. i.e Kevlar is poly para-phenyleneterephthalamide, carbon is just C.

[Nathan Zachary]

Where are they going to find the super tiny nedles and super tiny cheap 3rd world labor to do all this weaving and garment making?

[PurpleMan]

With the Army Acquisition system as it it, they’ll introduce it in about 2025.

[Freeport]

If you read the actual article, they show a spool of thread made from the carbon nanotubes. One could therefore weave it like any other abrasive thread.

[Nathan Zachary]

I was joking.

[Old Professer]

His boot looks like some of Nissan’s latest products.

[ClearCase_guy]

Where are they going to find the super tiny needles and super tiny cheap 3rd world labor to do all this weaving and garment making?

“Darling, I am insulted! But, for you, I will weave anyway.”

[Squawk 8888]

Probably by using the same technique used to stick teflon to the pan ;-)

[Nathan Zachary]

A typical ‘Dexter’ response would have been, “they’ll create and program nano bots to do all the work”.