Where Kevlar Fails, a Liquid Succeeds [VIDEO]

Douglas B. Clark

Community Manager & Editor, ChEnected
AIChE

Douglas Clark is a copywriter and speechwriter with a healthy appetite for all things digital. He has more than 15 years' agency and independent experience in corporate and marketing communication, and his clients come from diverse industries, specializing in anything from financial products and toothpaste to software for the visualization of computational fluid dynamics data. Among his clients are Accenture, American Express, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Hewlett-Packard, and Panasonic.

Kevlar is an incredible material for stopping bullets, but when it comes to a knife, it fails spectacularly. The addition of a milky white liquid, however, changes everything. The liquid, known as sheer thickening fluid, can be added to fabric to make things such as puncture-proofs vest for prison guards and soldiers. Maybe one day it will help create things like puncture-proof tires. Check out the video in the panel to the right.

What uses come to mind for this material?

Photo: bionicteaching via Flickr.

Comments

Submitted by MichaelZWilliamson (not verified) on Thu, 09/08/2011 - 16:50

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Motorcycle armor would be another application.

Submitted by C.R. de la fuente (not verified) on Sat, 09/10/2011 - 12:03

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micrometeorite shielding for space craft