Assessing the stab resistive performance of material extruded body armour specimens

This paper investigates the effect of material extruded body armour specimen size on stab penetration depth and back-face signature (BFS) and establishes the minimum thickness required for a series of material extrusion materials to provide protection against the UK Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) body armour KR1-E1 requirements. In stage one, material extruded planar test specimens ranging from 40 × 40 mm to 80 × 80 mm in length and width with 10 mm increments at three different thicknesses, 6, 8 and 10 mm, were stab tested under 24 joules of impact energy using a gravity driven drop test apparatus. In stage two, 50 × 50 mm specimens in six material categories, PC, ABS, PLA, TPLA, PA and TPU, were manufactured at different thicknesses via material extrusion and impacted in accordance with the UK HOSDB KR1-E1 stab impact energy level as they were the optimum size when considering overall stab and BFS performance. The study established the fundamental steps towards the use of material extrusion in future personal protection solutions. Results demonstrated that stab penetration and BFS were dependent on specimen size, thickness and material type, and there was an inverse relationship between stab penetration depth and BFS. Also, a minimum thickness of 5 mm for PC and TPLA, 6 mm for ABS, 7 mm for PLA, 11 mm for PA and 12 mm for TPU, with 100% print density, was required in order to provide protection against the HOSDB KR1-E1 level of 24 J stab impact energy.