Development of a Extremely Compact and Lightweight Sleeping Bag

New paradigms in lightweight sleeping system design are required to address the high-mobility needs of today’s soldier. Functional requirements that include use from -40°F to +80°F, a weight limit of 7.22 pounds and a maximum stored volume of 104 in³ will necessitate the use of cutting edge materials, processes and configurations that have not yet been commercialized. In Phase I, teams from Cascade Designs (inventors of lightweight, compressible insulating sleeping mattresses) and Sierra Designs (innovators in sleeping bags) will come together to (1) leverage internal materials and design R&D efforts, (2) scour suppliers’ development labs for the soon-to-be-state-of-the-art materials, and (3) accelerate their integration into high performance sleeping gear. The usefulness of these new materials and designs will be evaluated using a combination of thermal testing and an aggregate model to estimate their effect on system performance. Ultimately, the most appropriate materials and design for each of the system’s functional areas will be determined. Optional work will take the selected materials through full-scale mock-up and instrumented manikin testing.