Bulletproof Suits Project
Before you read: This article is done on behalf of a task assigned to me by 'GTech μLearn'. This was a group idea by me and some of my friends with help from our chemistry teacher as well.No practical applications have been done based on this. I just wanted to use this opportunity to write a blog on my experience.
Many of us have seen bulletproof suits in John Wick movies and thought, Wouldn’t it be cool if it existed in real life? Well, guess what? It’s not as much of a fiction as you thought.
The most common types of bulletproof vests today include:
- Soft Body Armor (Kevlar or Dyneema): Worn by law enforcement officers and security personnel, these vests are designed to protect against handgun rounds. They’re flexible and relatively light but don’t provide protection from high-velocity rifle bullets.
- Hard Body Armor (Ceramic or Steel Plates): Used in military operations, hard armor can stop rifle rounds. However, it’s much heavier and less comfortable to wear for extended periods.
But there’s always a tradeoff between protection, weight, and flexibility. The heavier the vest, the more protection it offers — but the less comfortable it is to wear.
That's where bulletproof suits come in. Like the one's in John Wick movies. Modern bulletproof suits do exist, and they can stop bullets from small guns to larger, more dangerous calibers.
Companies like Garrison Bespoke have made similar products to the ones in the movies.
These vests are highly effective in stopping 9mm rounds. This is due to their advanced nanotechnology, using carbon nanotube materials.
But, in this article, I’d like to talk about a material that could revolutionize bulletproof clothing even further: graphene.
"Graphene is about 200 times stronger than steel, yet it’s one of the thinnest materials ever discovered — just one atom thick."
This was the fact that got us thinking if it possible to make a bulletproof vest/suit with it. Then we found out that bulletproof suits were actually a real thing and companies were already making it. But they were not using graphene for it. Theoretically, it could stop bullets while being as light and flexible as a regular fabric and also when a bullet hits a graphene sheet, the energy is dispersed across a wide area, preventing the bullet from concentrating its force in a single spot.
But then again, we didn't take into account any of the drawbacks that this idea had. Producing large sheets of graphene is expensive and complex. Also its not yet properly tested enough to be used in bulletproof suits yet. I mean graphene is still in research state but it still holds great promise in this field.
Who knows.. maybe one day movie-style bulletproof suits will become an everyday reality.
Thank You!
I may have went a little overboard with the details but I'm happy I got a chance to talk about bulletproof vests.
