Cut-resistant performance of Kevlar and UHMWPE covered yarn fabrics with different structures

Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber are widely used in stab-resistant materials at home and abroad. Researches focus on the selection of a single fiber as raw material, but rarely combine the two high-performance fibers for the fabrication of stab-resistant fabrics. Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber were utilized to prepare twelve kinds of covered yarns with different structures in this paper. Tensile performance of the covered yarns and cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics were tested, respectively. The results show that tensile performance of the covered yarns is better than pure Kevlar or UHMWPE yarns with same linear density. Tensile performance of the covered yarns decreases with the increase of twists, and the covered yarns show different failure modes with different twists. The cut-resistant performance of covered yarn fabrics are better than that of pure Kevlar or UHMWPE fabrics; and the cut-resistant effect with Kevlar fibers wrapping around the core fibers is superior than that with UHMWPE fibers. The cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics decreases with the increase of twists of the covered yarns. For the same kind of covered yarn structures, there is a positive correlation between cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics and tensile strength of the covered yarns. However, no correlation is observed for different covered yarn structures. The results lay a theoretical foundation for the structural optimum of cut-resistant and stab-resistant clothing.