Why do bulletproof vests expire

For example, soft armor deteriorates much faster than hard armor and is particularly vulnerable to heat and wetness Once a soft armor is completely saturated with water, it should be replaced immediately. PE armor always shows a stronger high-temperature resistance than kevlar armor. Newtech Armor Hard Armor Plate.

The use frequency is also an important factor affecting the service life of protective equipment. Taking bulletproof vests for example, compared with an occasionally used bulletproof vest, a frequently used one always has a drop in the performance, for the use of protective equipment usually brings about some wear and tear, resulting in the reduction of their service life.

How you maintain your body armor will also affect the length of time that body armor can be used. Some body armors need to be kept in a specific environment because of their materials. For instance, the widely used Kevlar bulletproof vest and plates should be kept to avoid the direct contact with sunlight and water.

Prolonged contact with water will greatly reduce their protective effect, and then their service life. In addition, you need to store your vest in a place that will allow it to rest in a flat position. Soldiers Wearing Ballistic Vests. The last thing that greatly affects the service life of body armor is how fit it is.

When wearing a loose bulletproof vest, people will put excess stress on the ballistic panels because they will be able to move around inside of the carrier rather than press snuggly against the body. If a bulletproof vest is too tight for someone, it could cause his vest to crease and damage the ballistic panels. So, it is important for you to wear a vest that fits you well and make some adjustments when needed to reduce their damage and maximize its protective effect.

Without knowing how the buyers use and maintain their products, manufacturers have no way to promise an exact expiration. Many of them will conduct a performance testing on the products and give a general time range. Many officers will use duct tape to secure the vest to their body. But, this is not a good idea for a number of reasons. One reason is that duct tape will tape the vest down so it cannot move with the body correctly.

And, this means a coverage problems can occur during a ballistic event. A second reason is that duct tape does not provide additional ballistic protection. After all, the fibers have been ruined by the bullet and cannot be repaired. It does not matter what time of year it is, law enforcement officers must use both their front and back panels to protect themselves.

Too often, many cops will use just their front panels during the summer. Many cops like the back pocket in their carrier that holds the trauma pad. Too often, cops will place their backup gun holster or cell phone in it. Use it for the trauma pad, as it has been designed for. If the wearer is shot in the vest, the trauma pads will reduce the bruising that occurs.

There have been many cases where law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty did not have their bulletproof vest on. Rather, they refused to wear it and left the vest in their locker or trunk. Most bulletproof vests issued to law enforcement in the U. This is how long your body armor is expected to hold its rating. Look for any damage at all, like tears, creases, burns or even a suspicious smelling odor.

Follow the instructions on how to care for your ballistic armor as well and it should last longer. According to a tenacious rumor throughout the police community, bulletproof manufacturers reinforce spots the NIJ shoots at before certifying the vests.

Wear yours today and you can go home tonight! If you have any comments or a question please do not hesitate to leave a quick message in the comments section at the bottom of this page. If shot or a partner is shot while wearing a vest go to the emergency room and be examined for blunt force trauma.

Take the vest to the hospital regardless of trail of evidence to ensure the doctor s can determine the potential types of injuries to bones, organs, and tissues. My pal G Lang, an extremely qualified ballistics analyst, says that every single time you are struck in the gullet proof vest, your ribs get cracked.

Not TRUE at all. There is a new Kryon Terminator suit that can stop several 9mm machine gun rounds at bery close range. Of course other factors come into play including the cross sectional area of the bullet. Thanks for your comment! We wanted to state that small and very fast rounds e.

I have no personal experience being shot with or without a vest, but my best guess would be that if somebody was hit by a. Even a rifle round with two or three times as much energy as a. Level III, or preferably higher. Of course there may be massive bruising, broken ribs, etc. Certain velocities may indeed penetrate armor of certain ratings, but heavier rounds bring more blunt force trauma.

The more mass a round has, the more blunt force trauma. In particular if it is moving quickly like a. A gn. So no, a 9mm of any kind is not a threat to body armor of any rating, even old school IIa armor. Most modern soft armor is not rated to stop a. The 5. It will run at around 2, fps, thus the reputation for punching through body armor. It is a rather weak round, and the penetration after passing through soft body armor is questionable.

Neither are going to be fun, and both could kill you even with armor, but the. Rifle rounds will punch through soft armor with no problem. One can easily fire. These rounds have sufficient velocity that soft armor does not offer much protection. No in general terms the author is correct. You are adding in a third component energy and making the blind assumption that a heavier bullet traveling slower will have more energy just because its heavier.

Even if loaded to the same chamber pressures. That is not always or even the majority of the time correct. It is very well proven that of a given bullet construction impact vel is the most deciding factor in armor penetration.

Further many bullets of same caliber have more energy when they are lighter versus their heavier brethren. Beyond that loads are developed for bullet perf not max vel for a given bullet. They may also change bullet construction or a combo of both.

Point being heavier in pistol ammo rarely means more energy. Lets even look at an extreme and then a closer one.. We can use the luckygunner test results as they were all done with the same gun and testing protocol. All data is from a 3. So we can see its not even close. The reason for some of this is at a given bullet caliber of a given construction for a bullet to get heavier it must get longer.

That longer bullet has more surface area along the body and thus more barrel friction plus there are other factors that effect equal vel for weight increase. This is not some freak comparison either we can look at others even in the same product manf and line of ammo.

As can be seen even with the exact same bullet design general pressure loading from same manf the lighter faster bullet has more energy. Now you may bring up sectional density as a key indicator of bullet penetration depth along with energy. This only really translates for same caliber FMJ with the hightech bullet construction of today you have bullets with more energy penetrate far less and other bullets that are lighter penetrate deeper. Some penetrate far deeper than some gr.

Fact is of a given bullet diameter and frontal cross section area the surface area of the nose of the bullet the velocity of the bullet is the difference in one penetrating a given level of ballistic protection or not.

BTW the 50 gr civil defense load has penetrated i. Now of course if you take those same bullets of the same designs and run the heavier one very close to the exact same vel yes it will penetrate at a slightly lower vel. But its no where near the ratio of the difference in weight as a percentage. Further its now well shown that heavier bullets of same caliber and cartridge does not mean a higher muzzle energy.

A common confusion is when you try to transfer long range impact energy of high power rifle rounds to handguns. In the case of rifle round retained energy is also a factor of ballistic coefficient or more correctly the drag co curve. Hornady has a great paper on it. Its why as a general rule the farther out you want to hit a target for a given bullet design the heavier bullet will usually have a higher BC or better drag curve and thus will not hold onto energy longer thus will have more retained energy.

This short span of time is the direct result of fibers breaking down over time which causes them to lose their ability to perform as expected.

Although it may still stop a bullet at year six, there is no guarantee that with each passing year the performance will diminish. The risk of using an expired vest goes well beyond the cost of a replacement. You need to take into consideration that other environmental factors and conditions may shorten the lifespan of the bulletproof vest, as well.

If a vest is ever saturated with water, it should be replaced immediately. Experts recommend that you never rely on an expired bulletproof vest, or purchase a used one. This data can easily be used to determine if your vest inventory is field-ready and trustworthy at all times.

There is no easy way to test if a vest has been compromised, other than shooting it. So, as a matter of life or death and to protect those who take care of the rest of us, it is good to know when it is time for replacement so you can budget accordingly.