DuPont, Wilmington, De., chemical manufacturer, has announced the availability of DuPont Kevlar XP, a new patented technology that provides ballistic and trauma protection in a more comfortable body armor solution.

Both DuPont and independent tests show that Kevlar XP consistently stops bullets within the first three layers of a vest designed with a total of 11 layers. The remaining layers of Kevlar XP absorb the energy of the bullet, resulting in less trauma, or backface deformation, to the vest wearer. Based on DuPont experience, significantly more layers are typically required to stop a bullet in other commercially available lightweight technologies. Kevlar XP initially will be available for body armor, but DuPont already is developing additional ballistic applications for the future, as well as products for other industries.