[FoxNews] U.S. Army infantry soldiers prioritize physical fitness, but how much faster could they maneuver wearing new material that is 14-times more effective than current body armor? This goal forms the principal inspiration for a current Army Research Lab effort to engineer a new kind of lightweight armor -- intended to be 64-percent more impact resistant than steel and up to eight times lighter than current armor.Scientists with the Army Research Laboratory and the University of Buffalo have begun laboratory experiments involved in restructuring microscopic materials to massively increase an ability to “absorb impact” and “dissipate energy,” Dr Evan Runnerstrom, Program Manager, Materials Design, Army Research Office, Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, told Warrior in an interview.
The material now being tested, however, is designed to engineer a new kind of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) that is 10-to-20-times more resistant than off-the-shelf UHMWPE; this is accomplished through an elaborate scientific process designed to create “microscopic structural variations” in the composition and thickness of the material, Runnerstrom said.
These new variations are created, Runnerstrom said, by combining differently configured polymer strands into integrated “hard & soft” material. On one side, polymer strands are both elongated and hardened together -- while the other side is engineered to be softer and amorphous. This is done to generate a specific, high-value impact.