Honeywell delivers combat helmet materials
Honeywell has announced that it has completed the delivery of advanced ballistic materials that will be used in the development of next-generation combat helmets for the US Army. The company made the announcement 15 May, 2012.
Honeywell said it has delivered 218 helmets containing advanced Spectra Shield and Gold Shield ballistic materials that the army will evaluate to help set new helmet performance requirements. The helmets are designed to be 16 to 24 percent lighter than the helmets US soldiers currently wear, and provide increased ballistic and non-ballistic performance against handgun rounds and fragments from improvised explosive devices.
Spectra Shield is manufactured using Honeywell’s proprietary shield technology, which bonds parallel strands of Spectra fibre with an advanced resin system. Spectra fibre is made from ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene using a patented gel-spinning process. The fibre exhibits ‘high resistance to chemicals, water and ultraviolet light, and has excellent vibration damping, flex fatigue and internal fibre-friction characteristics’, and has ‘as much as 60 percent greater specific strength than aramid fibre.’
The delivery was made as part of a contract signed with the army in April 2011. The equipment will now be evaluated by the US Army’s Programme Executive Office (PEO) Soldier as part of a wider effort to reduce the weight of soldier body armour and increase head protection for greater soldier comfort, mobility and safety in the field.
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