Here is something interesting that I have stumbled across. It looks like someone named Doo Kalmanson Aquino is trying to create a startup company for designer body armor (Click Here for more info). He mentiones KBLB along with other spider silk companies in his patent as a potential source for "Ballistic Materials". While it does not necessarily mean that KBLB is currently working with this person, it is good to see them at least being acknowledged.
“Ballistic materials,” as used herein, refers to materials capable of resisting impact from a projectile. In one embodiment the ballistic materials are pliable and ballistic fibers in particular are contemplated. Ballistic fabrics are those formed from high tenacity fibers. High tenacity fibers are generally defined as having a tenacity of at least ten grams per denier. High tenacity fibers include liquid crystal fibers. This would include both lyotropic and thermotropic liquid crystal fibers. A mere illustration of a type of thermotropic liquid crystal fiber is a fully aromatic polyester and a mere illustration of a lyotropic liquidcrystal fiber would be an aromatic polyamide (polyaramid). An example of a fully aromatic polyester fiber is VECTRAN® manufactured by Hoechst Celanese Corporation and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,999. An example of an aromatic polyamide includes high modulus aramid fibers such as poly (para-phenylene terephthalamide). Such high modulus fibers are hereinafter known as HM-aramid fibers. An example of a HM-aramid fiber is KEVLAR® manufactured by E. I. du Pont Nemours and Co. and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,494. Other high tenacity fibers include Dyneema (DSM), Gold FIex™, Gold Shield™, Spectra™, and Spectra™ 3000 (Honeywell), Twaron (Teijin Twaron), Dragon skin (Pinnacle Armor), Zylon (Toyobo), graphite, nylon, glass, high molecular weight polyvinyl alcohol, high molecular weight polypropylene, high molecular weight polyethylene, natural fibers such as fibroin (including, but not limited to naturally, recombinantly and/or artificially produced silk and spider silk having suitable tensile strength to assist in stopping ballistic threats, see also silks produced by Spiber Technologies such as Qmonos™ Oxford Biomaterials, Ltd. such as Spidrex, or silks produced by Arakniteck, Nexia Biotech, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, AMSilk, and/or Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, as well as those disclosed in patents such as WO2012050919, U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,012, U.S. Pat. No. 8,278,416, U.S. Pat. No. 8,173,772, U.S. Pat. No. 8,114,631, U.S. Pat. No. 7,723,109, U.S. Pat. No. 7,521,228, U.S. Pat. No. 7,288,391, U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,894, U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,677, U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,771, and/or U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,810), and the like. In many applications, the fibers are used in woven or knitted fabric. For other applications, the fibers are encapsulated or embedded in a composite material. Some composite bonding compounds include matrices of olefin polymers and copolymers, unsaturated polyester resins, epoxy resins, and other resins curable below the melting point of the fiber. Other bonding compounds include phenolic/polyvinyl butral resin matrices, interstitial resin, elastomer matrices, among others. An example of a network of high modulus fibers coated with a matrix of elastomer is manufactured by Allied Corporation and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,574. In certain embodiments, the inventors herein have found protective materials such as woven and non-woven layers of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene sold under the trade name SPECTRA SHIELD® and/or SPECTRA SHIELD® II manufactured by Honeywell Group useful. SPECTRA SHIELD® is formed of a series of individual layers of four plies of unidirectional SPECTRA® fibers cross plied at 0°/90°/0°/90° and sandwiched in a thermoplastic film. In certain embodiments of this invention, each sheet of SPECTRA SHIELD®, and similarly constructed ballistic protective materials, may be considered a layer of protective material as disclosed further below.
