KEVLAR®
Kevlar® brand fiber is an innovative technology from DuPont that combines high strength with light weight to help dramatically improve the performance of a variety of consumer and industrial products. Groundbreaking research by DuPont scientists in the field of liquid crystalline polymer solutions in 1965 formed the basis for the commercial preparation of the Kevlar® aramid fiber. Lightweight and flexible, Kevlar® has evolved over four decades of innovation to do everything from helping save thousands of lives around the world to helping make safer homes and vehicles to helping land spacecraft on Mars. If it needs to be light, strong, or safe, it needs to be Kevlar®.
The worldwide recognition Kevlar® brand fiber has earned as a high-performance material for helping to protect human life extends far beyond the body armor used by the military and law enforcement community. A unique combination of properties makes Kevlar® the first choice for an ever-growing number of applications where a reduction of weight, increase in strength and resistance to corrosion produce significant improvements in safety and efficiency.
BODYARMOUR® products are reinforced in critical area with the synthetic fabric KEVLAR®, by DuPont™. KEVLAR® is a lightweight, super strong synthetic fiber made from aramid polymer. Aramid molecules are characterized by relatively rigid polymer chains, linked by strong hydrogen bonds, which transfer mechanical stress back and forth, rather like a zipper. This permits the use of chains of relatively low molecular weight.
KEVLAR® combines the following outstanding properties:
- extremely high tenacity
- high cut abrasion
- high impact resistance
- low weight
It offers exceptional cut and slash resistance, yet is lightweight, soft and comfortable to wear. Cut resistance is inherent to Kevlar® brand fiber. Repeated laundering has minimal impact on cut resistance.
5 Times stronger than Steel
And, because of its exceptionally high tenacity and impact resistance (five times as strong as steel on an equivalent weight basis), KEVLAR® is used throughout the world for cut protection, ballistics and other applications.