The Spectra vs. Kevlar Discusion
In the last couple of years a lot of improvements have been made, especially in the police and military equipments and gear , improvements that have lead to better safety. The new bullet proof body armor is more comfortable and protective. In the past bulk and discomfort was part of being protected. Thanks to KEVLAR the new body armors for the police and military have greatly reduced weight and size.
However today a new material called SPECTRA has been released on the market and SPECTRA is more flexible, lighter and stronger than KEVLAR. This new substance is changing the face of bullet proof wear for police and the military, but what are the differences and the big advantages of SPECTRA?
Let's first examine the structure of each of the two materials. Kevlar is a high strength, high performance fiber that, despite its many years of use in bullet proof clothing, is still not entirely understood. The best description of how it is believed to function is that the molecules form into sheets that then stack themselves around the center of a fiber like spokes. The idea behind using this as a bullet proof material was to stack several layers of the material together in a weave pattern.
The woven material catches the bullets and the fibers break apart layer by layer and absorb the velocity. The bullets also get dulled and flattened when trying to penetrate the many different layers of the bullet proof material. This always has been a very effective method but nowadays the bullets are made of harder materials and they have a lot more velocity than in the past.
This means that Kevlar vests are stretched to capacity and sometimes even penetrated completely by these forceful weapons. The only answer with this material is to thicken the layers of weave, which make the material even bulkier, heavier, and less flexible.
Since Spectra is a completely new and different technology , there is no need for layers due to the fact that Spectra is not a woven fabric. It is about 40% more lighter than Kevlar which makes it very useful for comfortable bullet proof vests