Safety net

The police are to test UK-developed anti-blast materials that become thicker when they are stretched, potentially offering protection from the deadly effects of flying glass following a bomb explosion.

The Police Scientific Development Branch (PSDB) will carry out trial explosions on a new design of transparent blast curtains composed of auxetic textiles.

These are materials with a number of unique properties currently under investigation by engineers at Exeter University and a dedicated spinout company, also called Auxetics.

When a conventional material is stretched it tends to get thinner. The opposite is true of auxetic materials which, thanks to the geometry of their structure, become thicker in cross-section when stretched and thinner when compressed.

Exeter University researcher Dr. Luke Savage claimed that auxetic materials could be the key to developing a textile that allows light through, but is also capable of containing the huge forces involved in an explosion.