Kevlar: Power of performance

Kevlar is an advanced technology that helps transform the ordinary to the extraordinary. It combines high strength with light weight, and comfort with protection

Products made with Kevlar brand fiber help those who use them to do more, to go farther, to be even better at what they do. Whether it’s working in a plant, at a construction site or in a forest. Whether it’s walking a beat, escorting a prisoner to his cell, or completing a tour of duty. Whether it’s winning America’s Cup, the Tour de France or the Boston Marathon. Whether it’s protection from the hazards they face on the job every day, or the comfort and lightweight strength they rely on to help them achieve their personal best, men and women around the world rely on one brand - Kevlar - to help them realize the power of performance.

Kevlar is an advanced technology from DuPont that helps transform ordinary products into extraordinary ones. It combines high strength with light weight, and comfort with protection. Products made with Kevlar - from protective apparel and sports equipment to automotive parts and ropes used on the Mars Pathfinder - help those who use them to do more, to go farther, to be even better at what they do. Kevlar is 5 times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis, yet, at the same time, is lightweight, flexible and comfortable. It is this unique combination of attributes that enable those who use it to realize success, to perform to their fullest potential and to achieve their personal best. This is your glimpse into the world of Kevlar. Read on to learn how and why this brand has become an integral part in improving performance in every day life and the many ways Kevlar can make an impact in yours.

A history of the power of performance

The year is 1965. Two research scientists working in a corporate lab create a remarkable fiber. The technology they developed was one that enhanced strength, light weight and flexibility. It offered numerous other benefits—ones that could be offered in a variety of forms. The scientists were Stephanie Kwolek and Herbert Blades. The company was DuPont. And the technology was Kevlar. And, because of the superior protection it provides, Kevlar brand fiber quickly became the technology of choice for bullet-resistant vests. In fact, police officers have relied on the Kevlar brand for more than 25 years because of the superior bullet-stopping power it offers. That power and protection comes packed at an extremely light weight, which provides both comfort and freedom of movement to those that wear Kevlar.

Properties of Kevlar

Kevlar is one of the most important manmade organic fibers ever developed. Because of its unique combination of properties, Kevlar is used today in a wide variety of industrial applications. Kevlar para-aramid fiber possesses a remarkable combination of properties that has led to its adoption in a variety of end-uses since its commercial introduction in the early 1970’s. Fibers of Kevlar consist of long molecular chains produced from poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide. The chains are highly oriented with strong interchain bonding which result in a unique combination of properties.

General features of Kevlar

• High tensile strength at low weight
• Low elongation to break high modulus (structural rigidity)
• Low electrical conductivity
• High chemical resistance
• Low thermal shrinkage
• High toughness (Work-to-break)
• Excellent dimensional stability
• High cut resistance, flame resistant, self-extinguishing.

Applications of Kevlar

Today, the story of Kevlar extends far beyond that DuPont laboratory. In the almost 40 years since its discovery, Kevlar has played a significant role in many critical and diverse applications: Ropes that secure the airbags in the crucial landing apparatus of the Mars Pathfinder Small-diameter, lightweight ropes that hold 22,000 pounds and help moor the largest U.S. Navy essels Shrapnel-resistant shielding in jet aircraft engines that will protect passengers in case an exposion occurs Run-flat tires that allow for greater safety because they won’t ruin the rim when driving to the nearest assistance Gloves that protect hands and fingers against cuts, slashes and other injuries that often occur in glass and sheet metal factories Kayaks that provide better impact resistance with no extra weight Strong, lightweight skis, helmets and racquets that help lessen fatigue and boost exhilaration Kevlar is best known for its application in the field of bullet-resistant personal body armor. But the applications for the light weight and strength of Kevlar are many, and the list continues to grow.

Products enhanced by Kevlar include:

• DuPont fire resistant mattress material
• DuPont StormRoom
• Performance apparel
• Adhesives and sealants
• Ballistics and defense
• Belts and hoses
• Composites
• Fiber-optic and electromechanical cables
• Friction products and gaskets
• Protective apparel
• Tires
• Ropes and cables.

The future of Kevlar

Kevlar is a highly creative material...a constantly improving, evolving technology. Jobs, activities or products that stand to benefit from integrating the dynamic technology of Kevlar are limited only by your imagination.

DuPont Kevlar Comfort XLT

There is little doubt that the physical demands of law enforcement are rigorous. Leaping. Sprinting. Chasing. Tough actions demand tough protection and a vest that’s comfortable enough to wear every day. Kevlar Comfort XLT, the latest ballistic technology from DuPont Kevlar, provides protection without sacrificing comfort and the freedom of movement that officers depend on to do their job.

25% lighter than traditional all-aramid fabric designs

Body armor no longer has to feel like body armor. Kevlar Comfort XLT is a patented technology that delivers significantly improved ballistic performance, which enables vest designs to be at least 25% lighter than current all-aramid fabric designs. That’s a big weight off any officer’s shoulders.

Protection you can trust

With Kevlar Comfort XLT, you get technology designed to make vests more comfortable from a company committed to helping protect officers. For more than 30 years, DuPont Kevlar has been a critical componet in ballistic vests. Today, Kevlar continues to develop innovative fibers and technologies that make the personal body armor worn by police more protective and more comfortable to wear. With Kevlar Comfort XLT, officers get the trusted performance of Kevlar to help them ge through their shift comfortably, and home to their loved ones safely.

A sense of freedom

Close your eyes and imagine... an open road. A balmy breeze. Feel the power of your new BMW Cruiser bike and simply let your fantasy take you wherever you want to go. BMW has been setting new standards in motorcycle technology for more than 75 years. ‘Enduro’, the impressive range of sports and luxury tourers and the ‘boxer motor’ are just a couple of BMW’s achievements. The new BMW R 1200 C Cruiser, adds yet another new dimension to the company’s biking tradition. A bike to exceed all expectations. A real ‘cruiser’, based on BMW’s hallmark of high-tech engineering, performance and reliability, which amply fulfils the biker’s yearning for freedom and adventure. The perfect partnership. The ultimate in cruising. The complementarity of Kevlar and Lycra helped Schoeller develop the comfort, aesthetics and freedom of movement BMW was searching for.

Safety you can wear, but cannot see

When it came to designing clothing and accessories for the new motorcycle, BMW set out to relect the kind of aesthetics, performance, safety and reliability which its designers had engineered into the bike. The company also wanted to give the wearers a ‘feeling of freedom’ and to produce cruising clothing which was good enough to lunch and dine in, yet which could protect the rider from burns and abrasion in a fall at up to 120 kilometres per hour.

For BMW, there was only one logical development partner for such a challenging brief. This was the Swiss textile company, Schoeller. By the mid 1980s, Schoeller had established a name for itself in the biking world with its range of protective fabrics for Grand Prix motorcyclists, incorporating Kevlar brand fibre. Developments continued with textiles such as the K-300 fabric, based on Kevlar, which was designed exclusively for BMW, as well as lines based on another DuPont product, Cordura.

Schoeller A G was founded in 1868 and is recognised as the world’s leading producer of creative fabrics for high performance workwear and sport clothing. Each season, the company’s fabrics open up new horizons for such famous fashion designers as Armani, whose ‘Neve’ skiwear collection is based on Schoeller’s lightweight shimmering metallic-coated fabrics. Other recent accolades include the company’s nomination by Matieres Premieres, Paris’s leading fashion fabrics forum, as the most creative European manufacturer of textiles for sport and active wear. Many of Schoeller’s fabrics are based on DuPont fibres.

Schoeller is a profitable and highly successful company. It increased its sales turnover by double digit numbers in the last recent years, and some 50 per cent of its production is exported to countries outside Switzerland and the European Union. The company sets out to continually expand its product range and is continuously investing in new technology and equipment to remain competitive. A recent milestone in this respect is the design and installation of a ‘world first’ water treatment plant, which is not just ecologically-friendly, but also promises to reduce Schoeller’s water treatment costs by around 75 per cent.

Unique fibres, unique technology

Hans-Jurgen Hubner, Schoeller’s president, has an instinct for business - and for the right kind of textiles. He is also an avid motorcyclist and likes nothing better than to escape into the Alps on his cherished BMW old-timer bike.

If you add to this the experience of Schoeller’s technicians, you automatically have the perfect combination for a world-beating design. “Motorcycle clothing should provide a good combination of comfort, aesthetics and safety,” says Hans-Jurgen Hubner. “Biking is about lifestyle, so image is importat. It is a statement of who you are and what you are. Comfort has a obvious link with the pleasure of biking, but is also a question of safety. Physiological stress is a pre-runner to lost concentration and, for a biker, a split-second loss of concentration could easily result in a serious accident.”

Impressive research

Schoeller’s research into the performance of its fabrics is impressive. Tucked away in a small Alpine village, only a few minutes away from the Liechtenstein border, the company boasts some of the world’s most sophisticated equipment for evaluating and testing motorcycle clothing. Schoeller’s ‘Fall Simulator’, for example, can rotate up to 120 k.p.h. and is one of only two such pieces of test equipment capable of measuring the impact resistance of textiles at these high speeds. This is important because, although Schoeller’s ‘Ino-Tex’ fabric weighs only 480 g/m2, it has to provide an excellent level of protection against the abrasion and skin burns associated with a high speed fall.

“The fact that we are able to achieve such a high level of biker protection, while at the same time providing good aesthetic and comfort, is due to right combination of Schoeller technology and the outstanding properties of DuPont fibres,” Mr Hübner says. Incorporation of Kevlar and Lycra into its ‘Ino-Tex’ fabric helped Schoeller develop the comfort, aesthetics and freedom of movement BMW was looking for in its ‘Maverick’ Cruiser clothing.

Exceptional properties

On a weight-for-weight basis, Kevlar is five times stronger than steel, has excellent resistance to abrasion and heat, only starts to carbonise at around 475 Cø and will not melt or drip, so it provides the required protective element for the ‘In-Tex’ fabric, without adding undue weight. Kevlar has an elongation to break of less than 4 per cent, so it is difficult to ima-gine it being combined in the same single layer fashion fabric as DuPont Lycra, which will stretch up to seven time its original length, instantly recovering when tension is released. Yet, it is this very complementarity of properties which has helped Schoeller to develop the comfort, aesthetics and freedom of movement which BMW was searching for in its original fabric design.

That Schoeller has been successful in combining such diverse properties for BMW’s range of ‘Marverick’ clothing speaks wonders for the company and provides further indication of why it is recognised as Europe’s most creative producer of sports and active wear textiles.

So, if you decide to buy ‘the bike’, do not forget to consider the clothing as well, so that you can enjoy the total experience!

Source: www.dupont.com