this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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For anyone else that isn't an engineer and also doesn't know, toughness is a defined term in material science.
Sounds like it'd work better than kevlar for armor.
I thought the article was being lazy by saying "tougher" but TIL that's the scientific term.
I think it's more practical in terms of being used for layering with kevlar to reduce overall weight of a piece of body armor. While at the same time making it cheaper and more cost effective than traditional body armor materials as mentioned in the article.
So rather than this being used as an upgrade to kevlar (which with more testing it might be able too) it's more like a side grade to reduce costs, as mentioned in the article silkworm silk is already used on a commercial and industrial level for other applications.
Granted it'll probably be a good few years before the silk being made by these genetically modified worms is both made consistently and is more refined with further testing and then distributed. But still it's something that material scientists will likely put to good use for reducing costs in lots of fields.
I'm thinking this silk may just be a new layer to armor, or just part of a new type of ____.
I don't know the material science so I may be a bit off base, but but since kevlar is a synthetic fiber I'm assuming it's made from petrochemicals and probably a source of microplastic pollution. So there's probably an environmental aspect to consider. Even if it's not actually more effective for it's role, the fact that it's tougher could be a useful marketing buzzword to get people to switch who wouldn't care about the environmental impact and maybe even justify an inflated price.
Also while body armor is probably by far the best known use for kevlar it does have other uses like in composite materials in a similar fashion to things like fiberglass. Shaving a couple ounces off a part that might otherwise have been made of kevlar by switching to silk might be attractive to certain fields, maybe we'd see high end racing sailboats with silk sails or something (not that I think that's a very important use, but for some reason I know some boats have kevlar sails so that came to mind)
A lot of great terms in material science.
Brittle fracture is the point at which a material breaks instead of deforming. A material that deforms instead of breaking with stress, like bubble gum, has high "Ductility." It doesnt retain its original shape, but it doesnt fracture.
Strength is the ability for something to withstand stress.
Metal generally has high hardness, good strength and at least some ductility. It will generally absorb and bend to stress, if it bends at all.
Something like Glass has low ductility, low strength and low hardness. It's very solid up to the point of brittle fracture, but once it happens it shatters.