Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor NIJ 0101.06 VS NIJ 0101.04
There is a new standard in body armor. In July 2008, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) released a new standard for body armor, the NIJ Standard - 0101.06, Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor. At Safariland, we welcome and support the new standard, and have long been following its development. We also thank the NIJ for its diligent work on behalf of law enforcement officers everywhere.
We believe the new standard will provide the law-enforcement community with a higher level of performance against a wider range of threats. The Safariland team of ballistic engineers have engineered innovative and technologically advanced body-armor designs to meet or exceed this new testing and performance standard. These designs will offer our customers a complete family of armor solutions to meet their needs.
The New Standard: What It Is
The NIJ Standard - 0101.06 is a performance standard that specifiesthe minimum performance requirements that body armor must meetto satisfy the requirements of criminal justice agencies and themethods that shall be used to test this performance.It supercedes the following:NIJ Standard - 0101.04 Rev. A, Ballistic Resistance of PersonalBody Armor (June 2001)NIJ 2005 Interim Requirements for Bullet-Resistant Body Armor(September 2005)NOTE : The NIJ Standard 0101.06 does not make previous body armor standards obsolete.
What It Means To You
In short, the new NIJ Standard means added safety, which hasalways been the name of the game for the brands of Safariland.The new standard increases safety in three ways:Increased performance against today’s emerging threatsBetter reliability across a full range of sizesImproved durability for armor that will stand the rigors of daily wear
10 Major Poin ts Of Di fference
The new NIJ standard features ten basic changes to the previous standards:
1. Five Classification Types
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- Type IIA - Type II - Type IIIA - Type III - Type IV In addition, there is a special test class that allows armor to be validated against threats that may not be covered by the five standard types.
2. Higher Velocities
The new standard increases the test velocities for new armor testing of Types IIA, II and IIIA. Test velocities have been established for conditioned armor testing. Special-threat rounds have been modified to be tested at elevated velocities within the special test class.
3. Type IIIA Round Changes
Type IIIA lighter weight threat round changed from a 9mm FMJ RN to a .357 SIG FMJ FN.
4. Shot Placement
The new standard modifies “shot-to-edge” spacing to allow shots within two inches of the edge of the vest for the 9mm FMJ RN and .357 SIG FMJ FN threats. The new standard maintains a shot-to-shot spacing of two inches; however, it changes the pattern of the fourth, fifth and sixth shot to be within a maximum of a 3.94” diameter circle.
5. Size of Test Samples
There are now five standardized armor samples that will be accepted for testing to NIJ Standard - 0101.06: smallest, small, medium, large and largest. Two different sizes must be submitted for testing by a manufacturer and the sizes selected determine the range of sizes that can be produced for that particular model.
6. Immersion Testing
The new standard requires test panels to be fully immersed vertically in a water bath at 70˚ F for 30 minutes. The prior standards only required a water spray test for six minutes.
7. Environmental Conditioning (Tumbling) Test
The new standard requires panels to be tumbled for approximately 72,000 cycles over a 10-day period at 149˚ F at 80% relative humidity prior to ballistic testing. The conditioned armor portion of the test protocol uses lower velocities than the reference velocities used with the new armor portion of the test protocol. The prior standard did not include an environmental condition test.
8. Number of Samples Required
The new standard requires 28 complete test samples (front and back panel). The prior standard required six complete test samples.
9. Angle of Incidence
The new standard requires that, for P-BFS testing, each test panel must be shot with one hit at 30˚ and another hit at 45˚ angles.
10. Hard Armor Plate Testing (III – IV)
The new standard requires hard armor to be tested with uniformed thermal exposure, thermal cycling and mechanical durability testing (drop testing). Each hard armor plate must be submerged in water and tested wet. The prior standard did not require conditioning prior to testing.