The US military's armor will probably use ten times more kevlar than the spider silk

It looks like future bulletproof armor will use silk spider silk instead of plastic resin.

That is the idea that the US military has bet on with a 10 month contract. On July 12, the US Department of Defense announced that it had invested in Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, a silk spider silk company , with a $ 1 million contract to research and develop spider silk The gene was developed by the company called "Dragon Silk".

Picture 1 of The US military's armor will probably use ten times more kevlar than the spider silk
The future armor of the US military will be made from silk spiders of mutated genes.

This type of silk is super durable thanks to a protein complex from spiders. However, due to mating behavior and the consumption of spider mates, it is difficult to produce silk at industrial scale. The Kraig Company implanted these proteins into silkworms, because natural silkworms were suitable for large scale silk production.

Spider silk is known as a super durable material in the textile industry. A study from the journal Nature has shown that mites are extremely durable, which is difficult to break with external forces. One study found that Darwin's bark was ten times stronger than Kevlar.

Scientists are also experimenting with graphene, a wonderful compound of carbon, in silk to help it become more resilient.

Picture 2 of The US military's armor will probably use ten times more kevlar than the spider silk
Spider silk is known as a super durable material in the textile industry.

"Dragon Silk achieves a very high level of tensile strength, durability and toughness, making it one of the most durable fibers ever known, suitable for many applications , " said Jon Rice, CEO of the company. said.

Rice says the company's lab costs $ 300 to $ 300 per kilogram of silk spiders from $ 30 to $ 40,000 - but that is hard to verify because there are no spider silk products in the market. school. Silk spider silk may soon be available and everyone can buy at a reasonable price.