#682: SharpShield

Stabbing attacks on e.g. police officers and other public-facing staff are particularly hard to defend against. Even bulletproof clothing can be punctured by a sharp knife.

It’s possible to wear a vest which can withstand a sharp point, but the pressure generated at the tip of a knife blade is enormous and the appropriate protective clothing becomes too bulky to be comfortable.

Today’s invention is a new configuration of shielding consisting of a continuous, flexible sheet of concave hexagons, moulded in tough plastic. When a knife point slams into this surface, it will tend to deflect into the base of the nearest concavity. Each dip contains an embedded metal ring (yellow) which locates the point and spreads its impact across neighbouring ‘cells’, without ever allowing the point to penetrate to the person underneath (pink).