New liquid armour

divine` · 24 Jun 2006 at 11:39

Surely if it solidifies with impact, there would be a risk that if you were running to cover and ran into a wall a bit hard say, half your upper body would just solidify and then you couldn't do anything?

Zip · 24 Jun 2006 at 11:40

Matt said:
What happens if you fall over quite hard and are wearing this stuff? Would it all go solid and you'd be stuck?

It looks like ones the pressure on it has stopped it goes back to liquid again.

Like on brainiac when they run across custard

Freefaller · 24 Jun 2006 at 11:59

Zip said:
The most damage a bullet can make is when it leaves an exit wound. If it cant penetrate the skin then it wont be able to leave an exit wound so the wound you get will probably be more broken bones and deep bruising and would be much easier to fix up then having to close up and sow down chunks of loose and damaged flesh

You can die from being shot in the leg - with or without an exit wound. An exit wound does creat a lot of damage but it's not the be all and end all of the severity of a GSW. All you need is for an artery to be severed or any major blood loss.

Zip · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:01

Freefaller said:
You can die from being shot in the leg - with or without an exit wound. An exit wound does creat a lot of damage but it's not the be all and end all of the severity of a GSW. All you need is for an artery to be severed or any major blood loss.

Yeah i know. But with out a bullet going into the leg in the first place there will be "less" chance of the artery being severed. Just how much less we dont know yet

Freefaller · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:04

Zip said:
Yeah i know. But with out a bullet going into the leg in the first place there will be "less" chance of the artery being severed. Just how much less we dont know yet

Agreed. Stopping something puncturing the flesh is obviously going to help minimise serious injuries!

The thing that I'm wondering though is if it stiffens during high impact - what happens if you're running, or crawling or generally being active as a soldier tends to be - won't it stiffen and thus stop you from walking etc?

Zip · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:06

Freefaller said:
Agreed. Stopping something puncturing the flesh is obviously going to help minimise serious injuries!

The thing that I'm wondering though is if it stiffens during high impact - what happens if you're running, or crawling or generally being active as a soldier tends to be - won't it stiffen and thus stop you from walking etc?

I would think it would need to be a reasonable hard hit to stiffen it?

Runing and jumping and moving wouldnt cause enough pressure on it to harden and activate the stuff i would have thought

Stelly · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:14

Freefaller said:
Agreed. Stopping something puncturing the flesh is obviously going to help minimise serious injuries!

The thing that I'm wondering though is if it stiffens during high impact - what happens if you're running, or crawling or generally being active as a soldier tends to be - won't it stiffen and thus stop you from walking etc?

I agree with you there mate..

I think that this is pretty neat

Stelly

mattbrown91 · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:32

If the bullet travels at 3000ft/s or 914 m/s and has a mass of 0.1kg

then it has 20,844 J of kinetic energy.

Can anyone compare it to something with 20,000 J of energy?

Luke · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:36

Zip said:
Like on brainiac when they run across custard

It was hardly custard! It was a vaguely yellow "liquid" that was mainly cornflour that was quite different to custard.

thesaint · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:36

hmm i wonder if i could get some bike armour made out of this

fatty1 · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:50

By the looks of the tests it wouldn't allow a bullet to go through but I am sure it would hurt like hell and you would still get internal damage

cleanbluesky · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:50

Freefaller said:
The thing that I'm wondering though is if it stiffens during high impact - what happens if you're running, or crawling or generally being active as a soldier tends to be - won't it stiffen and thus stop you from walking etc?

Technichally such a substance would be under pressure continually, one atmosphere at sea level as everyone is...

I'd imagine that it only stiffens with HIGH levels of pressure, hence it might be useful for stab and bullet attacks.

nealw · 24 Jun 2006 at 12:55

If its so light it may well be possible to wear this under conventional armour, or perhaps integrate it into clothing so that it only covers the parts conventional doesn't, such as arms and legs etc.

Aod · 24 Jun 2006 at 13:22

this stuff doesn't turn rigid permanently. it goes rigid during the periods of ultra-high stress and then becomes flexible again afterwards.

aardvark · 24 Jun 2006 at 13:31

looks pretty good but there will still be a lot of damage caused from a bullet, as seen in the video when the fabric moves a lot.

but still very useful - this sort of thing will make tons of money - stab proof vests for the public etc.. i hope he has a watertight patent

woodsy2k · 24 Jun 2006 at 13:36

Thats pretty cool stuff. I believe the general name for such liquids are non newtonian liquids.

What people were saying about if the bullet were to hit a leg for example, and that the leg then has to absorb all the energy, Well, if the bullet does not enter the body its damage is minimal, because (as said already) the bullet does most damage when exiting the body, where it has chance to pull everything with it as it leave.

The whole idea behind this sort of thing is the absorption and dissapation of energy in the most efficient way. If all the energy of the bullet can be dissapated over a large area, any lasting damage will be avoided.

Yes, of course it will still hurt a lot, but if it only puts a soldier out of action for a day instead of the rest of a war, then thats a vast improvment when considering it from that point of view.

woody

MNuTz · 24 Jun 2006 at 13:55

i think the trick would be to have either some type of superlight frame inside to move the cloth away from the skin or to use padding like they did under suits of armour in medivial times.

Either way you will still have problems, either looking like a spaceman and maybe movement constrictions or cooking your nuts off with the extra padding.

Freefaller · 24 Jun 2006 at 13:56

Aod said:
this stuff doesn't turn rigid permanently. it goes rigid during the periods of ultra-high stress and then becomes flexible again afterwards.

It's amazing stuff.

As has been said there is a lot of movement still in the material - but I'm sure they'll be able to minimise that in time. Incredible stuff. A big sodding bruise or welt is a damned site better than a GSW!

MNuTz · 24 Jun 2006 at 14:00

its not just clothes though, bullet proof command tents, bullet proof backpacks that can be taken off and used as protective cover.

Equipment covers such as radios, over tyres on vehicles, helmets will become lighter, crist, you could even make jeeps and boats out of this!!

Von Smallhausen · 24 Jun 2006 at 14:03

MNuTz said:
One of my mates down at the local army barracks was shot with and AK47.

There is a pencil sized whole where the bullet went in, looks like someone has put a fag out on him. It enter by his right shoulder blade and exited through his right bicep.

Its as though someone took a carving knife and just cut away all the muscle of his outside bicep/tricep and took it right down to the bone!

not nice.

Thats the thing with bullet wounds, they rarely exit in a straight line. They often glance or ricochet off bone and exit elsewher, causing massive trauma.

This liquid armour seems groundbreaking though and I hope it takes off and is issued with cost not being a factor. I was very impressed.