Scientists Develop Vested Interest In Life At The Pointy End

The Sunday Age

Sunday November 4, 2007

Stephen Cauchi

In the hostile world we live in, the right clothing can maketh the super-man, writes Stephen Cauchi.

WHAT do you get when you mix an Australian jail, space-age material from NASA, and New Zealand wool? It's a garment almost straight out of science fiction: the stab-proof, flame-resistant, woollen vest.

Scientists at New Zealand's Lincoln Research Centre in Christchurch developed the vest using a base of knitted Vectran, an ultra-high-strength fibre spun from liquid crystal polymer. And Lincoln believes there could be great demand for such a vest, which is being marketed as "a new stab and fire-resistant fabric developed to protect the wearer (in) the changing hostile world we live in".

It's a novel twist to use Vectran, which has many and varied uses, in such a garment. It is usually associated with more industrial uses - forming, for example, one of the layers in an astronaut's spacesuit. It is used in blimps and high-altitude airships, sailcloth, even the landing airbags in NASA's Mars probes.

Closer to home, Vectran's excellent flexibility and ability to fold make it a popular choice in the rubber reinforcement industry, including household items such as garden hoses. Vectran exhibits exceptional strength and rigidity. Kilogram for kilogram, Vectran fibre is five times stronger than steel and 10 times stronger than aluminium.

What scientists at Lincoln were able to do was weave Kiwi wool fibre into the Vectran base, resulting in a material that was not only super-strong, but flame-resistant, presentable and comfortable.

But what inspired the need for such a material in the first place? This is where the Australian jail comes in. Unfortunately, some nasty incidents at Goulburn Correctional Centre in NSW - the maximum-security prison that houses backpacker killer Ivan Milat - inspired the design, according to Lincoln senior scientist Ian McFarlane.

"I had a very good friend who was working in Goulburn jail and he knew I was a textile scientist and he said they had a problem with inmates sharpening plastic toothbrushes and attacking some of the wardens," said Dr McFarlane. "He said, 'Surely to heaven you could have a fabric that could resist puncture penetration'. So we made some fabric."

Dr McFarlane said research started about eight months ago. "The wool fibres make the fabric look and feel very much like a sports jacket coating," he said. "However, the base of the fabric is a Vectran-knitted base, which is resistant to cutting and has a melting point of something like 400 degrees."

Vectran was "extremely strong" - "weight for weight, it's about the strength of steel wire", and was developed originally in the United States, he said.

Dr McFarlane said the vest was not needleproof or bulletproof, but could withstand "shrapnel or low ballistic penetration". The vest is also fire-resistant. When exposed to great heat, the wool will "char into carbon . . . this carbon then forms a protective barrier against further heat".

The US military was among those that had expressed interest, Dr McFarlane said. "We've made several garments and there's quite a lot of interest . . . we're looking for commercialisation partners," he said. But Australian prison operators had not yet been approached.

FROM THE SHEEP'S BACK TO STAB-PROOF JACKET

1. Wool, taken from sheep, has been used for clothing for thousands of years.

2. Vectran, a space age material, is a man-made fibre used by NASA in space suits.

3. The natural and manufactured fibres are combined to form a fabric with some useful new properties.

4. The new fabric can be tailored to create comfortable light-weight garments that are both stab-proof and fire-resistant.

© 2007 The Sunday Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home