EP0208499A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Armour component
Assignee: Groves Trevor K
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Filing: 1986-07-01
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2006-07-01
Abstract
Abstract An armour component having a pair of layers (13,14) of flexible high impact-resistant material with at least two juxtaposed layers of hard beads (15,16) between the flexible layers. The beads (21,22) in the adjacent layers (15,16) are disposed with beads thereof inter-nested in the inter-bead spaces of each other, and the volume occupied by the layers of beads is substantially void of all other material. The beads of each layer may be arranged in a regular close-packed lattice pattern, i.e., a hexagonal or square so that each bead contacts its immediately adjacent neighbour beads. The component is designed for flattening and trapping a bullet and when used as a body armour provides the outer part of the garment. An inner component (12) is used in the garment for spreading the impact of the bullet striking the outer part. The inner component includes at least two layers of flexible material (27,28) having at least one layer of compressible material (30) confined therebetwen. The garment using the outer part (11) is light and flexible but is capable of trapping the bullet with little risk of spalling of the parts of the component. The inner component, which is also light in weight as the compressible material may be a plurality of hollow fracturable plastic balls (46) confined in compartments defined by tough plastic sheet material, is designed to soften and spread the impact on the body of the user to inhibit bruising or bone fracture.
Inventors
- 👤 Trevor K. Groves
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-01 13:32
CPC Classifications
B; B32; B32B; B32B3/00; B32B3/10; B32B3/18; B32B5/00; B32B5/22; B32B5/24; B32B5/26; B32B7/00; B32B7/04; B32B7/12; F; F41; F41H; F41H5/00; F41H5/02; F41H5/04; B32B2571/00; B32B2571/02; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S428/00; Y10S428/911; Y10T; Y10T428/00; Y10T428/23; Y10T428/239; Y10T428/24; Y10T428/24033; Y10T428/24628; Y10T428/24661; Y10T428/25; Y10T428/252; Y10T442/00; Y10T442/30; Y10T442/3472; Y10T442/348; Y10T442/3488
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
73 words
An armour component comprising: two layers of flexible material, at least two juxtaposed layers of beads tightly confined between said two layers of flexible material, the beads in one layer being disposed in most compact relation with the beads of an adjacent layer whereby the beads of the adjacent layers internest in the inter-bead spaces of each other, the volume occupied by the layers of beads being substantially void of all other material.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
73 words
An armour component comprising: two layers of flexible material, at least two juxtaposed layers of beads tightly confined between said two layers of flexible material, the beads in one layer being disposed in most compact relation with the beads of an adjacent layer whereby the beads of the adjacent layers internest in the inter-bead spaces of each other, the volume occupied by the layers of beads being substantially void of all other material.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
93 words
The armour of claim 1, wherein said at least two juxtaposed layers are hard beads disposed in a regular close-packed lattice pattern whereby each bead contacts each immediate neighbour bead in the pattern, said beads preferably being of spherical configuration, the beads possibly being of the same diameter in each layer or in adjacent layers and ideally being glass beads of from 3 to 5 mm. in diameter, the lattice patterns of the adjacent layers of the beads preferably being the same, such as a hexagonal close-packed pattern, or a square close-packed pattern.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
123 words
The armour component of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said flexible material is a high impact-resistant cloth, for example KEVLAR, said two layers of flexible material preferably provide outer and inner layers of the component, preferably each layer includes a plurality of juxtaposed sheets, and, for example, at least one sheet in each of said outer and inner layers is a high impact-resistant cloth, such as a foil of material having flexible, tough and elastic characteristics, providing at least one of the sheets of the inner layer, the sheets of said outer layer ideally each being formed of KEVLAR cloth, the sheets of the inner layer ideally including sheets of KEVLAR cloth at least some of which have LEXAN foil interleaved therebetween.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
82 words
A body armour structure comprising: an outer component for flattening and trapping a bullet, said outer component including two layers of flexible material and at least two layers of hard beads tightly confined between said layers of flexible material; and a separate inner backing component for spreading the impact of the bullet striking the outer component, said inner component including at least two outer layers of flexible material and at least one layer of compressible material confined between the outer layers thereof.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
82 words
A body armour structure comprising: an outer component for flattening and trapping a bullet, said outer component including two layers of flexible material and at least two layers of hard beads tightly confined between said layers of flexible material; and a separate inner backing component for spreading the impact of the bullet striking the outer component, said inner component including at least two outer layers of flexible material and at least one layer of compressible material confined between the outer layers thereof.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
67 words
The structure of claim 4, wherein the layer between the two outer layers of the inner component includes a light-weight, permanently deformable material, and preferably the layer between the two outer layers of the inner component includes a sheet material forming a plurality of closely spaced compartments between the layers of flexible material, and a plurality of fracturable beads, for example hollow plastic spheres, occupying said compartments.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
88 words
The structure of claim 4 or claim 5, wherein said outer layers of the inner component provide an innermost layer and an outermost layer each including at least one sheet of high impact-resistant cloth, for example KEVLAR, and the sheet material forming the compartments is of flexible, tough and elastic material, for example LEXAN foil, and ideally said compartments are a plurality of immediately adjacent domes having the tops thereof in contact with the outermost layer, each dome being filled with a plurality of compressible, low density particles.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
202 words
The structure of any one of claims 4, 5 or 6, further including an intermediate layer including at least one sheet of high impact-resistant cloth and at least one sheet of flexible, tough and elastic material, and a first layer of semi-spherical domes forming said compartments and arranged in close-packed pattern with the basis thereof attached to said intermediate layer and the tops thereof contacting the outermost layer, each semi-spherical compartment containing a plurality of low-density, deformable particles, and the interstices of the domes between the outermost layer and the intermediate layer being vacant, and ideally further comprising a second layer of domes forming another layer of compartments between the innermost layer and the intermediate layer, the domes in the second layer having the same pattern of the domes in the first layer and being aligned therewith and having the basis thereof attached to the innermost layer and the tops thereof contacting the intermediate layer, and preferably the interstices of the domes between the innermost layer and the intermediate layer contain a plurality of low-density, deformable particles and the domes in said second layer are vacant, the sheet material forming the domes of both layers ideally having flexible, tough and plastic characteristics.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
56 words
The structure of any one of claims 4 to 7, wherein the beads in each layer have substantially void interstices therebetween, preferably a thin flexible barrier for example of KEVLAR cloth is disposed the adjacent layers of beads, and the two layers of flexible material in said outer component may include sheets of high impact-resistant cloth.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
56 words
The structure of any one of claims 4 to 8, wherein the beads in adjacent layers are of the same diameter and disposed in the same close-packed lattice pattern with the beads in the layers being in the most compact relation, whereby the beads of the adjacent layers internest in the inter-bead spaces of each other.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
171 words
The structure of any one of claims 4 to 9, wherein the inner of the two layers of flexible material in said outer component includes a plurality of said sheets of high impact-resistant cloth with at least one sheet of a flexible, tough and elastic material interleaved between the sheets of high impact-resistant cloth, the two layers of flexible material in said outer component may be seamed together at regular intervals whereby said seamed layers are pulled tightly together to hold said beads in said battern. A thin layer of adhesive may be provided between at least one layer of beads and an immediately adjacent layer of flexible material for holding said at least one layer of beads in said pattern, said beads in the body armour structure may be threaded to retain said beads in said pattern, and may have a diameter of from 3 mm to 5 mm, and the body armour structure ideally further including at least one intermediate component having substantially the structure of the outer component.
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