KEVLAR^®

Any police officer that has gone into a dangerous situation can tell you about it. The manufacturers of 747s, boats, tires, sports equipment, and butchers' and surgeons' gloves can tell you all about its fantastic physical properties. What is this substance that is used in the production of over 200 products from space vehicles to brake pads? It's KEVLAR^®.

Stephanie Kwolek invented one of the modern world's most readily recognized and widely used materials: Kevlar^®. DuPont put its Pioneering Lab to work finding a viable commercial version of Kwolek's new crystalline polymers, the potential applications for which were obvious. The result was Kevlar^® (first marketed in 1971), a fiber five times stronger ounce for ounce than steel, but about half the density of fiberglass. Kevlar^® is best known to the public as the material from which bulletproof vests are made; and in this use alone Kwolek's discovery has saved thousands of lives.

DuPont's family of Kevlar^® brand fiber products provide a unique combination of toughness, extra-high tenacity and modulus, and exceptional thermal stability. These applications include cut-, heat-, and bullet/fragment-resistant apparel, brake and transmission friction parts, gaskets, ropes and cables, composites, fiber optic cables, circuit board reinforcement, sporting goods, tires, automotive belts and hoses.