Optimization of Soft Body Armor with Laminates of Carbon–aramid Fiber and Polyester Fiber Using the Taguchi Method

• Main Authors: Purnomo Hari, Ismail Kurnia Wahyu, Haji Muhammad Saleh Farham, Kisanjani Alex
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2019-01-01
• Series: E3S Web of Conferences
• Subjects: protective clothing; quasi-static; synthetic fiber materials; the pattern of lamination
• Online Access: https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2019/56/e3sconf_ic-amme2018_01012.pdf

Body armor is a vital instrument for Tentara Nasional Indonesia-Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and Polisi Republik Indonesia-Indonesian National Police (POLRI) to protect themselves from any projectile penetration and the spread of explosive material. One type of body armor is soft body armor, commonly used for handling community riots. The forming material of soft body armor should be strong and flexible. For that, selecting appropriate materials to optimize their ability is necessary. This research aims to develop soft body armor with carbon–aramid and polyester laminate as materials using a quasi–static impact test. The method used was the Taguchi experiment, the advantage of which is its ability to optimize the desired quality characteristics based on the best factor. The results showed that the optimal combination of polyester and carbon–aramid composite materials showed a median result from the quasi–static impact test of 61 259.91 N with the optimum compositions of factor D level 1, factor A level 2, factor B level 1, factor E level 2, factor C level 2, factor F level 1, and factor G level 2.