Defence Textiles………….
By RRK
INTRODUCTION
Defence forces on land, sea and air are reliant on technical textiles. It may be woven,
knitted or non-woven. They may also be coated or laminated. These textiles offer
invaluable properties for military forces. The following figure gives an idea about the
properties provided by the technical textiles offered to the defence.
But we should understand that providing all the three properties in single clothing is
very difficult and hence they are given by different layers in combat clothing system.
Protection and defence are passive responses, i.e. they absorb the impending energy or
impact for protecting the underlying structure.
When we see the textile used for ballistic protection, it is also seen that apart from
stopping bullets and bomb fragments, they provide high thermal insulation causing heat
stress also. And when we go for air permeable fabrics, they are insect proof. Hence
providing all the properties in a textile material is very difficult and needs a lot of
research.
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Defence Textiles…………. By RRK
The properties said above are explained briefly in the following pages.
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Defence Textiles…………. By RRK
1. Physical Requirements
PROPERTY COMMENTS
Light weight and Items have to be carried by
low bulk individuals.
High durability and Must operate reliably in adverse
dimensional stability conditions
Good handle and drape comfortable
Low noise and antistatic No rustle and no sparks
2. Environmental Requirements
PROPERTY COMMENTS
Water-repellent, water proof & For exterior materials exposed
wind proof to cold weather
Thermally insulating For cold climates
Water vapour permeable For clothing and personel
equipment
Rot-resistant For tents, covers, nets
UV resistant light Environment with sunlight
biodegradable If discarded or buried
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Defence Textiles…………. By RRK
3. CAMOUFLAGE, CONCEALMENT AND DECEPTION REQUIREMENTS
PROPERTY COMMENTS
Visual spectrum Exposed materials match visual
colours
Ultra voilet In snow & ice regions
Near infrared To match reflectance of
background
Far infrared To minimise heat emitted by
humans & equipment
Acoustic emissions Rustle noises detected by
microphones & sensors
4. SPECIFIC BATTLE FIELD HAZARDS
TYPES COMMENTS
Ballistic fragments Bombs,grenades
Low & high velocity bullets Hand guns, pistols
Chemical & biological agents Blood agents, nerve agents,
bacteria
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Defence Textiles…………. By RRK
5. ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
PROPERTY COMMENTS
Easy care & min maintainance Non iron, smart
Long storage life & minimal War stock to be stored for
cost 10-20 yrs
disposable Nuclear & chemical
contamination
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
The military forces have to work in all parts of the globe, in a wide range of
environmental conditions, like rain, snow, fog, wind, lightning, sunlight, dust, heat,
cold, wet, high UV areas, and wind-chill. Defence standard defines the worldwide
conditions in which men, women, equipments and weapon have to operate effectively.
The highest priority in any environment is the protection of the individual.
THERMAL INSULATION
Defence personnel those who are working in cold/dry conditions like Arctic and
Antarctic, and other mountainous regions of the world have to carry clothing, sleeping
bags, personal equipments and these material require high levels of thermal insulation.
Fibrous material offer resistance to heat transmission due to the air enclosed between
and on the fiber surface. Normally an efficient insulator will have 10 – 20% of fiber and
80 – 90% air enclosed in between the surface. The fiber in fabric or other material
whatever it is acts a large surface area medium to trap still air .
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Defence Textiles…………. By RRK
Thermal insulation
WATER VAPOR PERMEABILITY / WATER PROOFING
Water proof material allows free passage of water vapor. In extreme war operations,
one can’t choose the climatic conditions or the intensity of their activities and if the
above properties are not apt in the fabric, they may lead to injury or death due to
hypo/hyperthermia. The following table will show us the effects of wearing
impermeable clothing in different conditions.
Conditions Activity Consequences
Cold/ wet climate Medium activity Discomfort
Cold/ wet climate in High activity followed by low Hypothermia
sweat wetted clothing activity
Hot moist climate and High activity Hyperthermia
wearing protective
clothing
CAMOUFLAGE CONCEALMENT AND DECEPTION
The word ‘camouflage’ is derived from French word ‘Camoufler’ meaning ‘to disguise’.
The camouflage patterns were introduced by French for the first time during the World
War I. but before that plain camouflages were introduced by India in 1850s, i.e. in the
form Khaki uniforms. These camouflages should be effective in all the wavebands of
detection used by the military forces, i.e. UV, near IR and far IR. The basic objective of
the camouflage is that, the observation and detection should be as far as possible, and
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Defence Textiles…………. By RRK
it should be a passive process.
Textile camouflages are in the form of flexible nets, garnishing, and clothing items.
TEXTILES FOR CAMOUFLAGE,CONCEALMENT & DECEPTION
Under UV band:
Titanium dioxide pigment as a coating
-Under visible band:
Khaki, brown, black and green colours used for uniforms.
Light weight polyurethane or acrylic coated nylon.
FLAME REATRDENT HEAT PROTECTIVE TEXTILES
The civilian fires are mainly accidental but as far as the military fires are considered,
they are deliberately planned events and out of all the textiles used in military are the
first to ignite. Some of the flame retardant applications of textiles in defence are
as follows :
One should understand the threats actually brought onto the defence people due to the
flame and heat caused in the environment. The following figure depicts the military
flame and heat threat.
BALLISTIC PROTECTIVE MATERIALS
The purpose of the ballistic protective materials is not to just stop the speeding bullets
but to protect the individual from fragmenting devices as well, i.e. form grenades,
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mortars, artillery shells, and improvised explosive devices. We should note that the
injury caused to the civilians is mainly due to two factors,
High velocity bullets from rifles, machine guns which are mainly shot from a long range.
Low velocity bullets from hand guns which are shot from close range.
The technical people who are working on the protective textiles should understand that
the velocities of the bullets possess more weightage than the kinetic energy, bullet
shape and the composition of the bullet.
FIBERS USED IN BALLISTIC PROTECTION
Earlier, woven silk fabrics were used for ballistic protection. More recently high modulus
aliphatic nylon 6.6 with high degree of crystalline and low elongation was developed
and widely used in body armor and as textile reinforcement in composite helmets.
KEVLAR
Developed by DuPont, this is widely used in the modern generation of light weight body
armors. It consists of long molecular chains produced from poly-phenylene
terephthalamide. The chains are highly oriented with strong inter chain bonding that
results in unique combination of properties, which include high tensile strength at low
weight, low elongation at break, high modulus, low electrical conductivity, high
chemical resistance, low thermal shrinkage, high toughness, excellent dimensional
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stability, high cut resistance and flame resistance. It does not melt and is unaffected by
moisture. It is five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis.
TWARON
This is another pararamid fiber. The yarn uses 1000 or more finely spun a single
filament that acts as an energy sponge, absorbing a bullet’s impact and quickly
dissipating its energy through engaged and adjacent fibers. Because more filaments are
used, the impact is dispersed more quickly.
SPECTRA
This fiber is an ultra high strength polyethylene fiber. Ultrahigh molecular weight
polyethylene is dissolved in a solvent and fibers are produced through gel spinning
process. These fibers are 10 times stronger than steel, more durable than polyester and
has a specific strength 40% greater than aramid fibers.
DSM DYNEEMA
It has extremely high strength to weight ratio and is light enough to float on water. It
has high energy absorption characteristics and dissipates shock waves faster.
BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL PROTECTION
We should understand that toxic agents cause emotional and lethally horrific effect.
These are insidious mass destruction weapons. There are primary and essential devices
for protection. There is ori-nasal and full face respirators and these filters out and de-
activate toxic species. These respirators contain activated carbon on a textile substrate,
which absorbs the agent vapor. The activated carbon are provided in any of the
following three forms,
Finely divided powder coating
Small beads
Fiber fabric form.
The activated carbon possesses pore structure which provides a high surface area
facilitating absorption of a wide spectrum of toxic gases. There are two methods of
removal of toxic gases.
Today, the activated charcoal is on air permeable non woven supported on a foam
backed textile or a laminate consisting of two textile fabrics sandwiching a charcoal
layer.
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FUNCTION SPECIFIC STUDY
FLAME RESISTANCE GARMENTS
Protection for the individuals has always been quite important in any workplace. Today,
flame resistant suits have become quite indispensable in several kinds of workplace
environments. One of the important safety measures is to protect the individuals with
good quality flame resistant suits. Flame resistant suits are full-sleeved coveralls,
though you can even find the same kind of fire protection with bib overalls. The
coveralls are considered to be better because they cover more of the body and hence
provide better safety from accidental flames. These suits are generally made with Ultra
Soft material which is a blend of 88% natural fiber cotton with 12% of synthetic nylon
material.
This blend is considered to be a safety standard in flame resistance. It can keep away
high resistance flames, and is also used in the military for the same kind of protection.
An advantage is that this material looks quite trendy from the outside, since it uses
cotton. So, flame resistant suits can be considered a blend of safety and stud fashion.
Inside the Ultra Soft outer layer, inside, a lining of Modacrylic is provided, which is
another high degree flame resistant material. The two linings are kept together with
Nomex, which also has fire retarding properties. Most of these flame resistant suits are
fastened with brass zippers attached to the front of the suits with Nomex material. The
various pockets might also have zippers of brass. So, you can see, each and every
component of the flame resistant suits is quite ready to combat any accidental
breakthrough of fire.
IMPACT PROTECTION TEXTILES
For years the manufacturers of high-performance apparel have struggled to develop the
systems that protect against high energy impacts without sacrificing flexibility,
breathability or ease of use. APS is an intelligent fabric that consists of 3-D spacer
textile treated with specially formulated, response silicon coating. It remains soft and
flexible under normal conditions but when stressed under high impact force; the
material instantly becomes rigid and then immediately returns to a flexible state.
This innovative material offers the unique combination of benefits that is particularly
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suited for use in high performance protective apparel and equipment. These benefits
include:
Fully integrated active safety that can be stitched directly into the garments
Material customization and versatility that allow many creative design possibilities
Breathable, flexible and lightweight construction for outstanding comfort and freedom
of movement
Washable for easy care and maintenance
1. To increase on field performance of the soldier
Less weight and improved pack ability
Environmentally versatile over a wide range of climatic conditions
Increased protection and wear comfort
2. To optimize cost effectiveness
Reduction in the number of different articles and materials of clothing
Outstanding functionality and longer life cycle
Easier adaptation to new developments
CONCLUSION
The main military nations have research programs geared towards future combat and
protective clothing as integrated systems. The programs tend to be led by military
threats or capability gaps doctrine, rather than exploitation of new technologies for the
sake of it. The systems approach involves all the major stakeholders, including,
strategic planners, users, equipment capability managers, operational analyzers, R&D
scientists, producers, contracts staff etc. The general aims of future systems are:
Improve protection against natural and battlefield threats
Maintain thermo-physiological comfort or survival in extreme conditions
Improve compatibility between and within different clothing components
Reduce weight and bulk of materials
Integrate functionality so that fewer layers provide multi layer protection
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Reduce life cycle costs by making systems more effective, durable, and recyclable and
by buying few components in the system
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