Individual Soldier, Active Flame Suppression/Avoidance/Barrier System for Head/Face Protection

Combat soldiers encounter battlefield threats of fire from various sources such as pool fires and improvised explosive devices (IED). Fire, flame and thermal threats yield burn casualties of varying levels of severity and death. As a consequence, the Army seeks a thermal/flame-activated system or technology capable of providing a protective envelop about the head and face for flame avoidance, providing an insulated flame barrier from flame, or providing a combination of the two. A protection system worn by a soldier to deploy in the event of a thermal threat must be lightweight, have a low profile, be safe, be fast acting, and operate with little or no interference with other soldier activities or functions. The proposed approach by METSS is the development of a self-triggering, thermally activated personal head and face protection system that is based on existing automobile airbag technology and high-speed optic sensor technology. The Phase I proposal addresses the design and integration of the system components, materials selection and basic system demonstration. The proposed approach will adddress all of the requirements of the SBIR program.