Protection
The pieces of a bomb suit overlap with other pieces for maximum protection whether the wearer is facing toward or away from an explosive device. The suit protects in several ways. It deflects or stops projectiles that may come from an exploded device. The second way it protects is by stopping the blast wave from being transmitted and damaging the soldier inside of the suit. Usually, Kevlar, foam, and plastic are layered and covered with fire retardant materials to accomplish these things.
Until the mid 1990’s, EOD suits consisted of Kevlar and/or armor plates to stop projectiles. However, the suits did not offer much protection against the blast wave itself. The most recognized injury due to the blast wave is called “blast lung.” The lungs (and other internal organs) can be injured by the blast wave and bleed, even when there is no penetrating injury; such internal injuries can be fatal. In the mid-1990s, research conducted in the U.K. showed that textile and rigid plate armor by themselves do not protect the lungs from blast injury. It was found that a layer with high acoustic impedance with a backing of a softer, low acoustic impedance layer (such as low density foam) would protect from blast injury. However, it was also shown that it is important to understand the frequency content of the applied blast wave and to experimentally test the way materials are put together to make sure they are effective.
Read more about this topic: Bombsuit
Famous quotes containing the word protection:
“Guns have metamorphosed into cameras in this earnest comedy, the ecology safari, because nature has ceased to be what it always had been—what people needed protection from. Now nature tamed, endangered, mortal—needs to be protected from people.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“As Jerome expanded, its chances for the title, “the toughest little town in the West,” increased and when it was incorporated in 1899 the citizens were able to support the claim by pointing to the number of thick stone shutters on the fronts of all saloons, gambling halls, and other places of business for protection against gunfire.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A strong egoism is a protection against disease, but in the last resort we must begin to love in order that we may not fall ill, and must fall ill if, in consequence of frustration, we cannot love.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)