The first time I heard about the D3O and their impact protection technology was in 2006 when their  technology were used by ski teams of the USA and Canada during the Winter Olympics. From there, D3O has been making significant inroads in the sports market especially extreme and motor sports. I just never realised that their "impact" in military applications is happening until someone pointed me out this article written at the Recoil Magazine Blog.

D3O promises to further improve armour technology for military and law enforcement. Whilst we have been so used to body armour inn terms of Kevlar and Ceramic Ballistic Plates as the armour, D30 answers the question of protection against blunt force trauma. The body armour in use today can stop bullets but the wearers still suffer blunt force trauma, the kinetic energy during the impact which is still a force that can send shock to the body. D3O's impact protection technology handles that part, spreading the force throughout and minimizes the impact to the fragile human body.

The special polymer material acts as shock absorber, changing shape during impact to spread the energy then goes back to its normal shape afterwards. To explain this, those who see action movies or TV shows when someone gets show with body armour on. The armour stops the bullet and keeps the wearer alive, but for that moment he/she is temporarily immobilised due to the bullet impact and thus out of the action for a short period which may be crucial. Now, with impact protection, the wearer gets back into the action quickly as the bullet impact gets minimised.

The photo above shows the D3O knee pad now being used in UF Pro Tactical clothing. D3O has a full range of impact protection solutions for the different parts of the body: from joint protection, to helmet impact absorption, to having a conver impact vest.

Apart from supporting the body armour for bullet impacts, the D3O can be used as standalone impact protection where ballistic dangers are not concerned such as footwear and also for high speed crashes especially for motorcyle riders. The applications of D3O's technology goes beyond sports and military, but even for industrial and medical applications.

We often say that many technologies that were developed for military applications eventually can be life saving in the civilian market. But the same also goes from the civilian market to the MIL/LE markets, and D3O's impact protection technology is one shining example.