British-Designed ‘Bulletproof Custard’ Liquid Armor Is Better than a Kevlar Vest

I am Batman

I wonder how close this material is to D3O that is being used to make everything from crash beanies to work boots. That product was discussed on popsci about three years ago and one of the future applications was going to be bullet proof vests.

I cant quite tell from the article but is the material a viscus gel inside a kevlar lattice or is it more of a rubberlike molded compound like the D3O stuff? It is also not explaied if the final product was rigid or flexible.

It sounds to me like it would be flexible. I think these sorts of materials are pliant and liquid at low impact speeds (think pressing your hand into it) but solidify when impacted more quickly, as a bullet would do. It sounds similar to the cornstarch and water home science experiment.

My wife used to make very rigid custard......it could have stopped a tank shell.

My wife used to make very rigid custard......it could have stopped a tank shell.

My wife used to make very rigid custard......it could have stopped a tank shell.

3 times????

It must have been cubed custard!

Interesting....I am picturing a bulletproof "Fat suit"

LOL cubed custard.

It seems like they're always making some kind of new "bulletproof material" I want every single bullet resistant material we've ever made lined up and shot at with everything we've got. May the best material win. Then give it to our troops I don't care how much it costs.

This must be the "impact armor" hard SF writer and mathematician used in his books 30-40 years back... Always great to see SF ideas arrive in the real world!

Only the British can come up with a name like ''bulletproof custard'' :)))
But is seems like good science, so they should keep at it...
Ivan Malagurski

I hope that now that the armor is thinner and more flexible, they'll be able to put some SLEEVES on those bullet-proof vests. I imagine everybody who has ever been shot in the arm would approve of that.

This could be brilliant for bomb squads, it would stop the shrapnel, although you would probably fall over as your suit turned rigid, I do have to agree that bullet proof sleeves would be good (and pants, can't forget the groin)

I wonder how the impact is on this compared to regular Kevlar. On the higher velocity rounds the Kevlar will catch the bullet but the impact would push the vest into your body and make a shock wave that would turn yer guts to jelly. Since liquid absorbs more energy I guess it would be lower. Hope so.

Did anyone else play with cornstarch and water as a kid...?

bulletproof yogurt, cottagecheese or custard? you can tell its british b/c they call it custard. should be something cool sounding like idk, an acronym, but even that’s kinda hard you can't just call it NSA (Nanoparticle Suspended Armor), no wait I got it, FKB (Flexible Kinetic Barrier). but I do like JohnnyH's Impact Armor.

Yea, well Im going to start making my bullets out of custard. Mwah ha ha.

I'm not impressed. Fire a .50 caliber armor piercing round at 2800 feet per second, see if it stops the round. Then I'll be impressed.

lnwolf41 Doesn't even need to a 50 cal slug, they have newerrounds to go in standard rifles for use as snipers. May not go a mile+ but it still kill.

Is this an edible custard? Or is it a custard wannabe? Cause if your starving, eating your taste edible armor doesn't sound too bad. Or is that going to far with edible clothes?

Not exactly a well written article like most on popsci... I don't expect masterpieces here... but they should at least try to be more exhaustive in their descriptions of what they are reporting on.

Though lack of information could just be due to Brit secrecy..... hmmmmm

custard.... mmmmm

Robert M. Smith, MD, PhD
edisonkenevil,
The article says it is a LIQUID!!!!!

I know about 15 other commenters have said something in this same vein but only the British would name something like that CUSTARD! Can't wait for the Ballistic Clotted Cream to come out...too funny.

This is very cool! I've observed honey shatter and then heal when shot. That made me think it might be a good jacket for fuel tanks. I figured heavy oils, tars and other viscous fluids might work as well. Apparently they'd need to be non-Newtonian, shear thickening fluids*. In any case, fluid dynamics is REALLY HARD (like Ph.D. mathematics) and I'm certainly no expert.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscosity and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid)

My greatest concern with body armor application of viscous materials would be their effective temperature ranges. Most viscous fluids thin as they are heated (and thicken as they cool) meaning the right viscosity for Iraq would be a rock hard material in the arctic. Maybe swappable gel packs for specific temperature ranges could address this.

Do you know where this is leading?
Injecting those nanoparticles directly into your skin!
Bullet-proof people!

Its probably a non-newtonian fluid.

hey your talking about larry niven

anyway back to busness
you probaly fall over after an explosionit be funny as heck though.
massive fireball comsumes the bomb squad guy. then it dies out and he's just standing there and fall on his face

well, what about eliminating the need of bullet protection in the first place dear stone age dimples? Either do we invest into social development world wide or we are bringing recent violance to the edge of no return. Such material developed may serve in catastrophic environment or will serve to the wrong people as usual, I strongly believe.

Interesting concept, sounds a lot like cornstarch and water. But I bet the soldiers who equipment seems to just get heavier and heavier are happy about this. I wonder how much it costs and long term multi climate effectiveness. I think we need more information in that regard before we can make any conclusions about this material.

www .nerdherd .ucoz .com -- our site (without the spaces before the dots)

One has to wonder if the tests were stopped at 1000 ft/sec. If so, it's all a waste of time. Any bullet fired from an assault rifle (M1, M14, M16, AK47, etc.) travels considerably faster than 1000 ft/second. Only special loads meant to be "silenced" travel less than the speed of sound (1125 feet per second through air at 20 deg C).

On the other hand, when have military researchers told us everything?

There are several liquid/gel/custard type of materials that have the property of hardening on impact. This makes it great for bullet impacts but most of the research I have seen have shown that they weigh significantly more than the fabric based energy dispersers like Kevlar when compared at the same ballistic resistance level. The other thing is that liquid/gels are basically useless against sharp weapons. Where as fibers like Kevlar can be woven tight enough to be cut/puncture resistant as well.
When I was in the Marine reserves 88-94, the flack jackets that we had were bulky. I am not sure what technology they used, but I didn't trust them as much as the thinner police Kevlar ballistics garments some of the Marines in my reserve unit used from their civilian jobs. If they think that they can make a thinner, lighter version than the Kevlar vests, more power to them, but they will probably have to be hybrid technologies to avoid some of the weaknesses of Kevlar only garments.

In response to 'nofreerides'
"I'm not impressed. Fire a .50 caliber armor piercing round at 2800 feet per second, see if it stops the round. Then I'll be impressed."

Most "Bullet proof" garments are no such thing. They are bullet resistant garments and most are only resistant to low energy ballistics like hand gun rounds. Not even ceramic based ballistic garments that are resistant to rifle rounds can stop armor piercing rounds. The only thing that I know of that would prevent a .50 cal. armor piercing round from penetrating is reactive armor and you can't put that on people.