Soft body armor material with enhanced puncture resistance comprising at least one continuous fabric having knit portions and integrally woven hinge portions

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention comprises a soft armor material which is capable of providing both energy absorption protection against impact and also protection against sharp pointed objects, which is relatively low in cost, and is light in weight.
In its broadest aspect, the invention comprises a soft armor material comprising a knitted light weight fabric providing a frictional resistance to the passage of a pointed object therethrough, the fabric being knitted preferably from a fiber selected from the group consisting of an aramid fiber and high strength fiber glass.
The fabric is designed to be arranged in a plurality of layers attached together in some suitable fashion, such as stitching, thermal bonding, use of an adhesive or the like.
The frictional resistance to the passage of a pointed object through the material is afforded by the knitted construction, which resists lateral displacement of the individual fibers in response to the application of the pointed end of an object in a manner somewhat analogous to the "Chinese finger pull" effect.
The resistance of the material to penetration by a pointed object can be increased by including an additional fiber component wound about or interspersed with the main fiber component, the additional fiber component being selected from a group of relatively high strength and high surface friction flexible materials such as metal fibers and ceramic fibers.
Also, portions of the knitted fabric can be strengthened by impregnation with plastic or epoxy materials.
The penetration resistance capability of the soft armor material fabricated according to the invention can be enhanced by the provision of an additional inner deflection layer.
The additional deflection layer can be fabricated from finely woven flat or textured metal mesh fabricated from stainless steel or titanium wire, or a relatively thin sheet of high strength material, such as titanium, having a textured surface.
The textured surface of either the mesh or the sheet material is preferably corrugated or dimpled