One armour does NOT equal to another armour, however safety pads and guards are standard sports safety equipment in dozens of activities. It is important to understand the difference between good or bad armour, as one is not equal to another. In this blog post I will attempt to explain what one should look out for when purchasing body armour.
I am assuming we all know what CE rating means when it comes to impact force, but who actually know what it really means? Up until I started Fempro Armour I knew what it meant but I didn’t know what it actually means for my body if I was involved in an accident.
As we all know, there are two levels of European impact certification.
Level 1 – suitable for most types of riding, it can be used by urban, commuter, and touring motorcyclists offering them a great level of all-around protection. The maximum transmitted force must be below 18 kN, and no single value shall exceed 24 kN
But why stop at level 1 if you can be better protected with CE level 2.
Level 2 – best suited to bikers racing on tracks, riding more extreme off-road, or stunt riding. Level 2 can provide up to 50% more impact protection than level 1. The maximum transmitted force must be below 9 kN, and no single value shall exceed 12 kN.
So what does kN actually mean? 1 kN equals to 100kg or the weight of a small car. This means with a CE level 1 you will have at least 1800kg of force going through into your body, and with CE level 2 it will be at least 900kg. That is a hell of a lot of energy your body will experience when being hit with an energy force.
Generic back protector from my well known adventure jacket. Just a thin piece of foam, not even CE impact rated.
As mentioned above ” one armour does not equal to another armour”.
So I challenge you guys to take your armour out of your jackets and have a look at them and see what it actually is.
When I learned all about impact protection I wondered what kind of armour my jacket (a well know adventure motorcycle jacket) had, and to my horror it had a piece of foam that I could have bought at Clark Rubber as back protector, and the shoulder or elbow protectors weren’t any better either. When I bought it, I felt it had some armour in it, so here I though “I am going to be protected”, but man I was so bloody wrong. I was just blissfully unaware of what quality it had.
So what should we look out for to minimise the impact energy going into our body?
CE rating is only one element when it comes to protection, the other two are distribution and absorption abilities. So how do we know what is a quality armour and what is not?
Traditional hard plastic armour is made out of the same plastic as your Bunning or Hardware store plastic tubs, just made thicker. Whilst this can be impact tested, however the buck stops there. Some foams are not better either, as the example on either of the images. Either samples don’t offer any energy distribution or absorption which means in laymen’s term, you have a 100% impact point, meaning, at least 9000kg of energy will go into your body at this impact point. The chance of braking or damaging something is very high.
Impact certified yellow shoulder or elbow armour, without distribution or absorption abilities
What is energy distribution?
When an energy force is recognized by the armour technology (in case of Fempro Armour air molecules) it will spread the energy force over the hole plate, meaning, instead of having a 100% impact point you will have lots of little point, so less energy force is possibly moving into your body.
The last important point to look out for is “absorption”.
Once the plate hardens on impact, energy has been distributed over the whole plate, the absorption capabilities apply then. Any energy left over in the plate, will be absorbed and pushed away from the body. It reacts the same way as your airbags in your car. If those explode, your body moves in and then gets pushed outwards away from the dashboard. So your chance of injury is dramatically more reduced, and in the case of Fempro Armour protectors, we know we are reducing up to 85% of the energy going into your body.
There are a lot of amour/protectors out on the market. So when it comes to quality armour lookout for armour like D30 or Fempro Armour as both of those have CE level 2 rating, energy distribution and absorption.
Don’t waste your money or your health when it comes to protection, you only have one body to play with. I don’t wake up in the morning deciding I want to injure myself today, but I know for sure, I rather be in an accident saying to myself ” I am glad I had it on” instead of “I wish I had in on”.
Here at Fempro Armour, our mission is to equip female athletes, women in high-impact sports, and frontline workers with the right gear to protect their bodies to help prevent injuries. Our female designed body armour and garments reflect who women are and celebrate the sports and work that we love. Check out our collection of female or male body armour.
Become a dealer/retailer of Fempro Armour and stock our items then please click on this link. This link will direct you to our sign on page of our wholesale company Fempro Armour International.
