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ARMOUR |
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Blast Mine Protection Body ArmourUpdated June 2000 A blast apron is designed to protect a deminer in the event of an accidental mine explosion caused by prodding. There is, currently, no effective way of protecting deminers from the effect of stepping on a buried anti-personnel (AP) mine. Recent tests in Australia have shown that the best current designs for mine-proof boots provide little protection from even the smallest AP mines - using specially designed plastic simulated legs and feet. Fragmentation mines cause much more damage and this type of protection is quite unsuited for that kind of threat.
Deminers in Afghanistan prefer to work in a squatting position, which exposes them to a greater risk of injury than if they were in a prone position. The arms, legs, torso crotch and neck are exposed to the possibility of serious injury. It would be safer for deminers to work in a prone position but this is often impracticable and uncomfortable. Attempts to persuade them to lie down have (so far) proved unsuccessful, and reports suggest that this problem is not unique to Afghanistan. A blast protection apron would enable UN supervisors to change SOP's (standing operating procedures) to permit deminers to work squatting. The blast apron is designed to minimise injury to the deminer working a squatting position if a mine explodes. When designing the blast apron, a compromise had to be worked out between cost, comfort and protection. Full fragment stopping capability isn't required, over 90% of injuries in Afghanistan result from blast mines. If the apron did provide fragment-stopping ability it would be too heavy and expensive to be usable. At UWA and HARC we designed and made the aprons shown on this page, but we ran out of funding before they could be tested against live mines. We are confident that they will provide cost-effective protection: a significant reduction in injury probability. Note that there are several other designs around, ranging in price between about US$250 and US$750 providing different degrees of protection. See for example an article by Med-Eng Systems in the Journal of Mine Action Volume 3 no. 2, The Development Technology Unit at Warwick University UK Currently our apron weighs about 2.7kg. This weight is spread evenly over the deminer's shoulders, when the deminer squats the majority of the load is placed on the ground by the skirt of the apron. This reduces the load on the the deminer's shoulders to approximately 1kg. The final weight of the apron is heavily dependant on the fabric used in the apron and the type of armour material. Depending on the choice of the materials and where the apron is made, the total cost should be from US $100 to US $200. Severl prototypes were ready for evaluation by early December 1998. The following photographs show these.
The Blast Mine Apron Prototype in September 1998
The blast apron is made of a cotton outer fabric that is breathable and comfortable. The armour in the apron is a sandwich of nine layers of ballistic nylon fabric sewn together. These are designed as removable panels so that they can be removed and the apron washed separately. Five armour panels are used in the apron design. Two small panels protect the upper arms, a chest panel covers the torso, a large panel is in the base and protects the legs and lower body of the deminer. A small collar piece (not shown in the photos) protects the neck. The chest armour attaches with Velcro while the other armour slots into pockets in the apron. The lower arm is protected from the effects of a blast by the polycarbonate prodder shield. Webbing straps are used to adjust the apron to fit, these allow the apron to be "one size fits all". Two straps are used at the back to adjust to the size of the torso. These straps come underneath the arms and are simply pulled to achieve a firm fit around the torso. The belt is adjusted so that when squatting, the lower section of the apron falls correctly to cover the legs. Putting on the apron
How it works while prodding
The upper and lower armour panels overlap to provide complete body protection while the upper arm piece is overlapped by the chest piece to protect the shoulder.
Copyright reserved © 1999 UWA Demining Project
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