Increasing resistance to bullets: Vests with new technology are for law enforcement; military applications are being developed.
By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
The Richmond Times Dispatch
RICHMOND, Va. — New Kevlar technology will allow the production of body armor with better bullet-stopping power at a lighter weight, DuPont said yesterday.
The company said a new woven fabric technology, coupled with a new coating process, improves the ballistic performance of its existing Kevlar aramid fiber.
The company’s Spruance plant in Chesterfield County, which manufactures Kevlar fiber, will be among the plants that supply Kevlar for the finished product, a company official said.
Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont said its new Kevlar XP can stop bullets within the first three layers of an 11-layer body armor vest, with the remaining layers absorbing the energy of the bullet, the company said. That results in less deformation of the vest and less blunt-force trauma to the wearer, company officials said.
“We believe it will be at least 10 percent lighter in weight and still be flexible, which is important for law-enforcement officers in doing their jobs,” said Dale Outhous, who works in Richmond as global director of DuPont’s personal protection division.
A plant in Ireland also will supply Kevlar fiber to a contract manufacturer in Italy that makes the finished product. DuPont has designed Kevlar XP initially for use in bullet-resistant vests worn by law-enforcement officers, but the company is working on military applications, Outhouse said.
The new product line will not have an immediate impact on employment at the Spruance plant, Outhous said. The company has about 3,200 full-time equivalent employees in the Richmond area, where it also makes materials such as fire-resistant Nomex and waterand chemical-resistant Tyvek.
In September, DuPont announced a $50 million investment at the Spruance plant to expand Kevlar production, part of a plan to ramp up production 25 percent by 2010 to meet growing demand. “This technology is, in part, helping to fill that expansion,” Outhous said.
In December, DuPont announced that it chose Berkeley County, S.C., for a $500 million Kevlar plant. The company said it needed another U.S. site to make the high-strength fiber, which also is used in products such as ropes, gloves and protective sheathing for fiber-optic cables.
DuPont began making the new technology available to body armor manufacturers around the world about a month ago. Outhous said he expects vests incorporating the new technology to be available to law-enforcement officers this summer, and to fall within the existing price range for body armor vests of between $400 to $1,000.
The company declined to release specific sales figures for Kevlar, which was first used for ballistic protection in the 1970s. Company spokeswoman Cathy Andriadis said textile apparels such as Kevlar and Nomex account for about 20 percent of revenue in its safety and protection unit, which reported revenue of about $5.6 billion last year.
Michael Foreman of Point Blank Solutions, a Florida-based body-armor manufacturer, said his company has produced two prototype products with the new Kevlar technology, and that it should help manufacturers meet the more stringent body armor standards being developed by the National Institute of Justice. Times-Dispatch staff writer John Reid Blackwell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Richmond Times Dispatch