Morris Township, NJ – Honeywell announced recently that it has introduced a new Gold Shield ballistic material with improved ability to stop bullets and fragments in military and police armor applications. The new ballistic material, Honeywell Gold Shield GN-2117, has demonstrated up to a 10 percent weight reduction when compared to Honeywell’s traditional Gold Flex material, which is also used in soft body armor applications.
The new product also provides increased surface durability and chemical resistance, allowing it to meet the toughest global body armor standards for military and law enforcement applications.
“This new material incorporates state-of-the-art composite technology to help armor manufacturers achieve a high level of ballistic performance with increased resistance to water, gas, and other environmental conditions,” said Joe Gelo, global business director for Honeywell’s Advanced Fibers and Composites business. “Honeywell remains committed to continuously improving our ballistic materials to support the goals of law enforcement and the military, which are to reduce armor weight and improve protection capabilities.”
Gold Shield GN-2117 builds on Honeywell’s proven Gold Flex ballistic material, a soft armor material that combines Honeywell’s patented Shield technology with aramid fiber. For more than 10 years, Gold Flex has been one of the most widely used ballistic materials in police and military vests. The new Gold Shield GN-2117 incorporates a proprietary resin and coating system, which provides its increased environmental and chemical resistance, as well as improved fragment protection.
This patent-pending technology helps Gold Shield GN-2117 meet the most stringent global body armor standards, including those of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Multiple vest models containing Gold Shield GN-2117 have successfully completed certification testing under the new NIJ 0101.06 standard for body armor.
The new material was announced at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement’s fourth-annual Military Armor Protection conference in McLean, Va., and was highlighted in a presentation by Dr. Lori Wagner, technology leader for armor for Honeywell’s Advanced Fibers and Composites business.
The introduction of Gold Shield GN-2117 further expands Honeywell’s portfolio of ballistic materials for advanced armor systems, including products for bullet resistant vests, breastplates, helmets, combat vehicles and military aircraft.
The Honeywell product line includes Gold Shield, Spectra Shield® and Spectra Shield II materials. Spectra Shield and Spectra Shield II use Honeywell’s super-strength Spectra® fiber, which, pound for pound, is 15 times stronger than steel yet light enough to float. Shield technology is a patented Honeywell process designed to optimize the ballistic performance characteristics of Spectra and aramid fiber.
Honeywell Specialty Materials, based in Morristown, N.J., is a $5.3B global leader in providing customers with high-performance specialty materials, including fluorine products; specialty films and additives; advanced fibers and composites; intermediates; specialty chemicals; electronic materials and chemicals; and technologies and materials for petroleum refining.
