Permeability and impact properties of warp-knitted spacer fabrics for protective application

An experimental investigation was carried out to study the effect of interlining material on the comfort and dynamic deformation characteristics of body armour. Suitable plies of interlining materials were selected based on the fabric comfort properties and the impact resistance specified for ballistic application. Kevlar woven fabric was used to block the projectile, and the spacer fabric was used as an interlining material to ensure wearing comfort and for imparting impact resistance. The yarn denier of the middle and bottom layers of the spacer fabrics was maintained constant, and three different deniers were used for the face layer. Three different plies of spacer fabrics were analysed by means of thermophysiological comfort properties to select the suitable interlining material for body armour. The experimental results confirm that the number of plies of spacer fabrics has significant influence on the ballistic armour characteristics than the face layer denier as proved by two-way ANOVA. The substantiated spacer fabric was used as an interlining material, and the depth and area of deformation were analysed. The research findings demonstrated that the three-plied warp-knitted polyester spacer fabric produced better results than single- and five-plied spacer fabrics. One-way ANOVA and Turkey's HSD also confirmed the influence and interaction of different plies of spacer fabrics.