Ballistic composite fabric
Motivation
Indoor shooting ranges – that is, enclosed facilities with bulletproof floors, walls and ceilings – are used for training and instruction for police and military purposes, as well as in the civilian sector for sport shooters and hunters. Many of these shooting ranges are currently outdated and no longer meet the requirements of real-world operational conditions (such as during a mass shooting or terrorist attack). The aim of the research project was to develop a ballistic composite textile based on non-woven fabrics, which, through its shape and design, could be used to equip structural elements, particularly the interior areas of buildings, especially shooting ranges.
Approach and results
The research resulted in a three-dimensional, pressure-stable and rigid non-woven composite. During the course of the project, various non-woven production and consolidation processes were tested, leading to the creation of a wide range of composite samples. Preference was given to a thermally bonded, three-dimensional random-pile non-woven fabric based on the airlay process, in which a non-woven fabric formed the decorative layer. The selection of a suitable fibre polymer for both the decorative and base layers contributed to achieving fire behaviour class B1 in accordance with DIN 4102-1. Compared to conventional cladding materials for shooting ranges, the non-woven panels have the advantage of being extremely sound-absorbent and providing very good damping in critical frequency ranges. A firearms expert fired at the non-woven panels using various weapons, including different ammunition and angles of impact, to test their suitability for indoor shooting ranges. In order to install the non-woven panels in indoor shooting ranges, the final substructure must be adapted to prevent the ricochet of bullet fragments. In a recycling process, production residues from the non-woven panels were shredded, turned into staple fibres and formed into three-dimensional entangled non-wovens in a second manufacturing cycle.