The Protector

    In this society, which boasts of high crime rates, one must take necessary precautions to protect himself\herself. This can be achieved by using a very effective and powerful device – The bullet proof vest. It is also known as bullet resistant vests or ballistic vest. Its design is multifunctional such that one gets protection from ballistic threats, blunt trauma, sharp edged objects and many more. To effectively use any object it is essential that one must understand how it works.

Design and Working

    Several layers of fibers are webbed together to create these protective shields. These layered fibers are capable of absorbing immense energy and dispersing the impact of the same immediately when a projectile strikes, hence minimizing the risk factor. Thus they protect the torso by absorbing the impact from ballistic threats.

    If a bullet hits a person who is wearing the vest, the vest works by trapping it and then restricting it from moving ahead. Hence it deflects the bullet by displaying the energy it absorbs onto its several layers. This causes the bullet to deform because the energy of the vest is dissipated. The momentum of the bullet is dealt with by the energy spread through successive layers, thereby, causing friction, which ultimately stops the bullet from hurting the bearer.

The Other Side of Coin

    There are two minor setbacks in these vests. The first of which is that, though these vests act like “knights in shining armor” by lessening the impact caused by bullets, it is known to cause many health oriented problems. The high kinetic energy is more than sufficient in what is known as blunt trauma. It is any physical injury which is caused to a body part, either by impact, injury or physical attack. It can cause damage to internal organs and muscles. The second setback is that of sharp objects. The injury caused by sharp objects can be eliminated by increasing the fibrous layers, hence, sometimes, these ultra dense fibrous vests are not competent enough to fully eliminate the threats from sharp or pointed objects from instigating an injury by penetration through the vest.

Immense benefits

The ballistic vests have some colossal benefits which help in escalating its popularity. Some of which are its:

             • Light weight

             • Excellent performance

             • Unidirectional design and

             • The maximum amount of absorption of the impact made by the threats.