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Engineers Design a Bulletproof Origami Shield to Protect Law Enforcement

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday February 18 2017, @12:47AM   
from the not-made-of-paper dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

BYU engineering professors have created an origami-inspired, lightweight bulletproof shield that can protect law enforcement from gunfire.

The new barrier can be folded compactly when not in use, making it easier to transport and deploy. When expanded—which takes only five seconds—it can provide cover for officers and stop bullets from several types of handguns.
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In working with law enforcement, BYU researchers learned much of what is currently used hasn't evolved much from medieval times: shields that are mostly flat, awkward plates that cover only one person. Current barriers are so heavy and cumbersome they make it difficult for officers to move into position.

The barrier Howell and his colleagues designed is made of 12 layers of bulletproof Kevlar and weighs only 55 pounds (many of the steel-based barriers in current use approach 100 pounds). The BYU-built barrier uses a Yoshimura origami crease pattern to expand around an officer, providing protection on the side in addition to protecting them in the front.

Aren't police using exploding robots in that kind of situation now?

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Original Submission

• not a shield not a shield (Score: 3, Informative) by KiloByte on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:48AM

  by KiloByte (375) on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:48AM (#468468)

  This is not a shield, so it shouldn't be referred to as one. The proper new word is "barrier", in historic usage it's "mantlet".

  A shield can be held in hand during combat: you can fight, move and run while holding one, even including heaviest tower shields. On the other hand, barriers, both those 100 "pound"¹ and 55 pound ones, are at most luggable, and need to be set onto the ground in order to be deployed.

  [¹]. The article doesn't specify whether those are land, nautical or survey pounds (assuming American as everyone else [wikimedia.org] long since dropped pounds).

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• Re:not a shield (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:45AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:45AM (#468509)

  (assuming American as everyone else long since dropped pounds).

  Dropped pounds and added stones (to their body weight)

  Parent

• Re:not a shield (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:29PM

  by butthurt (6141) on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:29PM (#468622) Journal

  America uses the English pound ("England, handelspfund" on your list).

  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/English+pound [thefreedictionary.com]

  Parent