Modern Body Armor Sports Equipment - Polymer Ambassadors

28 Pages·2008·5.57 MB·English

Impact of Polymers in
Impact Sports
Ohio Polymer Ambassador : Sandy Van Natta
[email protected]
Historical Perspective
Wall painting from an
Egyptian tomb at
Hierakonpolis
Circa 4000 BC
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
The First Polymeric Body Armour
Egyptian infantryman
From 19th century BC
Leather helmet &
padded linen cuirass
Hide covered shield
and groin defender
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
An Assyrian infantryman 7th
century BC
Bronze helmet & pectoral
with wickerwork shield
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
The Wilderness Years for Polymers
500 BC and the end of the 1st age of polymer body
armour!
A roman legionary wearing chain mail body armour
and a bronze Coolus type helmet.
The shield is still wood & leather with an iron boss.
About the same time:
The first use of body
armour in sport! Retiarius
the most famous gladiatorial style
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
In 1066 the Normans still used wood & leather
shields in the invasion of what is now the UK
World War 1
The return of polymeric body armour
High silk ballistic collar 1916
PH gas helmet and the “small box” respirator
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
Helmets & Flak Jackets
from polymer-fibre
composites
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
Police Helmets, Flak Jackets
and Plate-Foam Pads
The modern policeman
complete with foam flak
jacket & helmet and defensive
energy absorbing foam
protection and a
polycarbonate shield.
Illustrations by R Hutchins, J Mason & G Bingham
R Woosnam Savage & A Hall, Body Armour,
Brassey’s, Virginia 2001
Ballistic, sharp or blunt?
Bullets Balls
velocity > 300 m s-1 velocity < 50 m s-1
energy < 10 J energy < 5 J
mass < 20 g mass < 100 g
Knives People
velocity > 1 m s-1 velocity < 10 m s-1
energy > 1 kJ energy > 2 kJ
mass < 1 kg mass < 200 kg
Guns killed suits of armour but
Baseball reinvented them!