Body armor Q's

[167]

I am not sure this is the right place for this, but it is in reference to DocGKR's sticky above about soft body armor. I was wondering what "compression set wrinkling" is, what it looks like, and why it is a bad thing on vest?

[DocGKR]

When a crease or fold develops in polyethelene laminate materials, the ballistic fibers can migrate away from that area, leaving NO ballistic protection at that place in the vest.

[167]

So the "compression set wrinkling" is just folds/creases that develop over time? That is what I didn't understand, what compression set wrinkling means. Folds and creases causing problems I understand, I just don't typically think of them as "wrinkling" but more severe than that. Thanks for clearing it up.

[167]

This is a follow up questions I thought of a couple days ago and instead of starting a new thread I thought I would just post it here. Since laminate/hybrid vest sometimes have problems stopping contact shots because the heat from the shot melts the polyethelene material do you think that layers of clothing between the vest and the gun barrel would have any effect on that?

[DocGKR]

It is not so much heat, but the muzzle gases. Unless you regularly wear thick Nomex, I don't think normal clothing is going to help...