Stab and ballistic protection for law enforcement.
Corrections Officer Raymond Gonsalves takes a stab at puncturing a panel of TurtleSkin, used for making protective vests, at Warwick Mills in New Ipswich.
NEW FABRIC COULD SAVE LIVES
By NANCY BEAN FOSTER
Union Leader Correspondent
NEW IPSWICH — On the street, law enforcement officers wear body armor that helps protect them against bullets, but inside the walls of a prison, corrections officers need protection from makeshift weapons. The company Warwick Mills believes their TurtleSkin body armor may be the perfect fit.
Founded in 1888, Warwick Mills specializes in high-performance fabrics, laminates and consumer products for use in personal protective equipment, aerospace technologies, industrial safety and defense applications.
On Nov. 8, a bus full of corrections personnel who specialize in training and educating corrections officers left the International Association of Correctional Training Personnel’s 26th Annual Conference in Boston to visit Warwick Mills in New Ipswich.
At the oldest continuously operating textile mill in New Hampshire, the trainers saw the newest technology in stabresistant body armor put to the test.
Specially designed machines delivered simulated blows from knives and ice picks to fabrics used to make body armor.
Warwick Mills Product Manager John Cronin illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of a lot of the body armor used by correctional officers.
The ice picks were stopped by the way the body armor fabric is woven, Cronin explained.
“As the pick moves through each layer of material, the fibers grab it tighter and tighter,” he said.
But when the knives were tested, the results were less comforting; the blades sliced through the fabric and came out the other side, revealing about an inch of blade. Though the fabric met the standards set by the National Institute for Justice for stab-resistant armor, Cronin said, the corrections officers seemed to balk at the idea of being stabbed, even if the wound was just an inch or so deep.
Warwick Mills product manager John Cronin explains the vulnerabilities in the fabrics that comprise most protective vests worn by corrections officers.
“I think many corrections officers think of their armor as being ‘stab-proof,’” said Cronin. “In reality, the vast majority of vests provide good resistance to ice pick-type weapons, but no meaningful resistance to knives.”
Then Cronin conducted the same tests on Warwick Mills’ TurtleSkin, a flexible composite that combines textile and metal to dull the blows from even the sharpest weapons. Instead of piercing the armor, the weapons bent under the force of striking the TurtleSkin, and the blades became tangled in the layers of fabric.
Despite his best efforts, trainer Raymond Gonsalves couldn’t stab through the TurtleSkin with a knife.
By providing officers with protection from blades and ice pick-like implements, Warwick Mills believes serious injuries can be avoided and lives can be saved.
“The fact is that inmates manufacture both types of weapons, so armor should protect against both threats,” said Cronin.
For more information, visit www.turtleskin.com.
TurtleSkin protective materials offer the highest performance and protection in specialty fabrics engineered for personal safety.
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I am currently wearing a Turtle Skin vest everyday on the job. It is the most comfortable vest I have worn in my 18 plus years in law enforcement. After almost two years of wearing it it has not curled or bunched up. It does not move and does not need to be adjusted during my 12 hour shift. The carrier is awesome. It feels good around the shoulders and after nearly two years the extra wide velcro straps are still holding like the first day.
I know that Turtle Skin prides itself in the level of protection provided by their vest but if you do this job everyday you know comfort is key.
I did get to see a shot demonstration before I got the vest. I was given all the specifics about what level of protection the vest provided for what caliber and grain bullet and so forth. The only thing I remember, and what stood out to me, was the clay backing that the vests were shot against. Several other vests on the market were tested and I was able to get a look at their clay backing. The impression made by the bullet that was trapped by the vest was shocking to me. It was at least the size of my fist and seemed to be very deep for an acceptable standard. The Turtle Skin vest left a very different impression in the clay. It was a very shallow impression and seemed quite dispersed by comparison. It felt like a no brainer at that point. If I were going to get punched in the chest by a bullet I didn’t want my chest to look like that first piece of clay.
In short I am very pleased with the vest, it’s comfort, and the protection I have when wearing it.