Development of a Unique Stab
and Impact Resistant Material
for Anti-riot Body Protector
M. S. Parmar, Neha Kapil, and Nidhi Sisodia
1 Introduction
In defense services mostly two types of body protectors are used prominently. These
are (i) Bullet resistant jacket/vest and (ii) Anti-riot body protectors. A bullet-resistant
jacket/vest is an item of personal armour that is worn on the torso. It helps to absorb
or reduce the impact and penetration of bullet, fired from firearm. However, antiriot body protector comprises helmet, neck protector, body vest, elbow protector,
gloves, groin protector, thigh and leg guards. Its role is to protect the body from
physical attacks—such as stone, knife, petrol bombs, stick, etc. These body protectors
are made of hard shell (polycarbonate, polyamide, polypropylene, etc.) and foam
(Polyvinyl chloride, Nitrile, etc.) and covered with specialized fabrics having fire,
water and chemical (acid and Alkali) resistant properties. The demand for anti-riot
body protector is increasing day by day amongst the police and paramilitary forces
to cope up with riots like situation. Stabbing is one of the areas which needs to be
addressed seriously. Security forces face a common threat of getting attacked by knife
or other sharp-edged weapons. Briefly, stab threat can be classified into two categories
as puncture and cut/slash. ‘Puncture’ refers to the penetration by instruments with
sharp tips but no cutting edge, such as a spike or screw-drives, whereas ‘cut’ or
‘slash’ refers to contact with knives or scissors with continuous cutting edge. While
designing body protectors, all types of stabbing probabilities are taken into account.
These probabilities are based on scientific studies. In past, numbers of studies were
carried out to analyze type and location of stab wounds. Some of the studies [1,
2] revealed that out of total 69 single fatal wounds cases, 50 were to the chest, 12
to the head & neck and 7 to the abdomen and lower limbs. In another study [3],
out of 27 single fatal wounds, 18 were to the chest. Fligelstone [4] have carried
out study on 92 cases mainly non-fatal injuries and observed that 37 resulted in
M. S. Parmar (B) · N. Kapil · N. Sisodia
Northern India Textile Research Association, Sector-23, Rajnagar, Ghaziabad, India
e-mail: drmsparmar@nitratextile.org; msprmr@yahoo.com
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Majumdar et al. (eds.), Functional Textiles and Clothing 2020,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9376-5_6
55
and Impact Resistant Material
for Anti-riot Body Protector
M. S. Parmar, Neha Kapil, and Nidhi Sisodia
1 Introduction
In defense services mostly two types of body protectors are used prominently. These
are (i) Bullet resistant jacket/vest and (ii) Anti-riot body protectors. A bullet-resistant
jacket/vest is an item of personal armour that is worn on the torso. It helps to absorb
or reduce the impact and penetration of bullet, fired from firearm. However, antiriot body protector comprises helmet, neck protector, body vest, elbow protector,
gloves, groin protector, thigh and leg guards. Its role is to protect the body from
physical attacks—such as stone, knife, petrol bombs, stick, etc. These body protectors
are made of hard shell (polycarbonate, polyamide, polypropylene, etc.) and foam
(Polyvinyl chloride, Nitrile, etc.) and covered with specialized fabrics having fire,
water and chemical (acid and Alkali) resistant properties. The demand for anti-riot
body protector is increasing day by day amongst the police and paramilitary forces
to cope up with riots like situation. Stabbing is one of the areas which needs to be
addressed seriously. Security forces face a common threat of getting attacked by knife
or other sharp-edged weapons. Briefly, stab threat can be classified into two categories
as puncture and cut/slash. ‘Puncture’ refers to the penetration by instruments with
sharp tips but no cutting edge, such as a spike or screw-drives, whereas ‘cut’ or
‘slash’ refers to contact with knives or scissors with continuous cutting edge. While
designing body protectors, all types of stabbing probabilities are taken into account.
These probabilities are based on scientific studies. In past, numbers of studies were
carried out to analyze type and location of stab wounds. Some of the studies [1,
2] revealed that out of total 69 single fatal wounds cases, 50 were to the chest, 12
to the head & neck and 7 to the abdomen and lower limbs. In another study [3],
out of 27 single fatal wounds, 18 were to the chest. Fligelstone [4] have carried
out study on 92 cases mainly non-fatal injuries and observed that 37 resulted in
M. S. Parmar (B) · N. Kapil · N. Sisodia
Northern India Textile Research Association, Sector-23, Rajnagar, Ghaziabad, India
e-mail: drmsparmar@nitratextile.org; msprmr@yahoo.com
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Majumdar et al. (eds.), Functional Textiles and Clothing 2020,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9376-5_6
55