How does a stab resistant vest work?

The stab resistant vest, as the name indicates, is designed to resist the penetration of edged and sharp objects such as knives and ice cones, protecting wear’s chest and back from the attack of these weapons. Now, let’s talk something about how the stab resistant vest work.

At present, most of stab resistant vests available are made of high-performance fiber Kevlar or ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Kevlar was born in the 60s of last century and is regarded as a new aramid fiber composite with lots of advantages, including low density, high strength (5 times as strong as steel), good toughness, great temperature resistance, and excellent molding property. While

UHMWPE is a high-strength fiber developed in the 1990s, which has the characteristics of UV resistance, water resistance, and ultra-high strength.

Stab Proof Vest

Unlike the ordinary clothing, the stab resistance vest is made by interweaving high-performance fibers together disorderly into a fiber web, and then stacking several fiber webs up. While these fibers are strong on their own, their protection level increases dramatically when woven tightly together. As the fibers in the net are randomly arranged and interwoven disorderly together, the sharp points are bound and blocked by layers of fiber nets during the pricking process, so that the stab resistance vest cannot be penetrated. It works as if someone were sewing with a needle and thread: the point pushes away some of the fibers in the cloth and edges in through the gap between fibers. However, when the cloth is made by layers of disorderly interweaved fibers, it will be extremely difficult for a needle to be able to penetrate, for such a cloth structure can slow down the rate at which the needle can pierce the vest and prevents a full puncture from occurring.

Testing of Stab Proof Vest

At this point, many people may think that a stab resistance vest can completely resist the penetration of various edged and sharp weapons, but this is not the case. Just as no ballistic vest can stop all kinds of bullets, no stab vest is completely impenetrable, this is why body armor is often referred to as stab or bullet ‘resistant’ rather than ‘proof.’ All body armors could be penetrated by a powerful enough weapon in some cases.

Like ballistic vests, stab resistance vests are also divided into different defense levels, and different levels of stab resistance vests are different in material structure, and thickness. According to American NIJ0115.00, there are three protection levels, I (can resist an impact energy of 24 J to 36 J), II (can resist an impact energy of 33 J to 50 J), and III (can resist an impact energy of 43 J to 65 J).

When choosing a stab resistance vest, we must make clear which kind of threat we may encounter with, and make a reasonable choice.

Keep in mind that in the case of a protective vest becoming damaged after an attack, you should always purchase a new one when available.

Above is all the clarification for the working principle of stab resistance vests. If there are still some questions, welcome to contact us.

Newtech has been long dedicated to the development and research of bulletproof equipment, we provide quality NIJ III PE Hard Armor Plates and vests, as well as many other products. When considering the purchase of hard armor plates, you can visit the website of Newtech to find the best one for yourself.