Tag DuPont

KEVLAR® is a space-age material designed by DuPont Industries. The material has been used for bullet-proof vests, helmets, masks, and friction absorption in the automotive and aerospace industries among other applications.
General Features of KEVLAR® :

Historic Kevlar Explination Video
From Beerio’s Manual
When working with Kevlar, don’t think of it as sewing, but as making armor such as the medeval warrior did with leather.
1. Find some clothes that fit you as you would like your new suit to fit. I would suggest something old, stained and with holes in it because you are going to be disassembling them.
2. Cut the clothes up along the seam. Becareful to use the seam because that is how the patterns were assembled originally.
3. Use the new patterns to outline where the cuts will be on the kevlar fabric.
4. Cut the kevlar carefully as marked.
5. Assemble the kevlar along the seams as the original suit was.
Some key points:
Practice on some cheap fabrics in case your first attempt does not go good the first time. Kevlar is VERY expensive. Don’t think of the fabrics you practice on as wasted because they can be used for other purposes such as normal day use (if they are really bad looking you can wear it around the house or for bed clothes)
You can also dye them and wear them over your kevlar suit. Kevlar is strong but not very fashionable.
You do not need to use a needle and thread to assemble the patterns together. Rivets, screws and powerful glue are other ways to fashion kevlar together.
Kevlar’s main weaknesses are that it decomposes under alkaline conditions or when exposed to chlorine.
20 layers are needed to stop a 9mm handgun bullet traveling at 1200 feet per second

NOMEX is the registered brand name of a flame retardant material marketed and first discovered by DuPont in the 1970s. It can be considered an aromatic “nylon”. It is sold in both fiber and sheet forms and is used as a fabric wherever resistance from heat and flame is required. Nomex type 410 paper is the original and one of the larger grade types made, mostly for electrical insulation purposes. The paper is used in electrical laminates such as circuit boards and transformer cores as well as fireproof honeycomb structures where it is saturated with a phenolic resin. Honeycomb structures such as these, as well as mylar-nomex laminates are used extensively in aircraft construction. Both the firefighting and vehicle racing industries use NOMEX to create clothing and equipment that can stand up to intense heat. Both aramids are heat and flame resistant but Kevlar, having a para- orientation can be molecularly aligned and gives high strength. Meta aramid polymer cannot align during filament formation and has poor strength.
Race car drivers commonly use a hood to protect them in the event of fire.Military pilots and aircrew wear one-piece flight suits made of over 92% NOMEX, to protect them from the possibility of fires and other mishaps. The remaining 8% is usually Kevlar thread used to hold the fabric together at the seams.