Occasionally you will see surplus Kevlar body armor go on sale for low prices. Typically, the reason it is surplussed is because it is past it's expiration date--essentially the date after which the manufacturer will no longer warrant the armor. But like a food's "best buy" date or a medication's expiration date, that doesn't mean that the armor is bad. Greg Ellifritz has written about this before. From his article, "Body Armor for Armed Citizens," he explains:
Most soft body armor has an expiration date approximately five years after its manufacture. The armor will slowly lose some of its protective abilities over time, but it won’t suddenly “go bad” at the magical five year mark. When I was the training officer at my department, I regularly shot old vests that our officers turned in once they got their newly issued armor. I never had a single vest fail to stop a round it was rated to protect against, regardless of age. I shot dozens of vests, some going back to the 1970s and never had a round penetrate.
With that said, almost all of the vests I shot were very old, but they’d only been actually worn daily for five to ten years. Daily wear for 20+ years may increase exposure to heat and moisture, which may reduce effectiveness.
He adds:
Heat, moisture, and UV light are body armor’s worst enemies. They will make a soft vest degrade more rapidly than it should. Be cautious about how you store your armor and purchase a moisture resistant carrier. Don’t buy used armor if you don’t know how it was stored. With that said, most police body armor worn for fewer than 10 years will still stop all the rounds it was originally rated against no matter what it’s chronological age may be.
(See also his article, "Seven Things You Don’t Know About Body Armor").
In the video below, the host takes a Kevlar vest that is 20 years past its expiration date (and 25 years after it was manufactured) and shoots it repeatedly with a handgun (I presume 9 mm). Even though the strikes were all close together, there was no through penetration of the bullets even after multiple strikes.
VIDEO: "Body Armor Expired in 2006… Does It Still Stop Bullets?"
Tap Rack Bang, LLC (7 min.)
No comments:
Post a Comment