Covering for bulletproofing a wall

[0001] This application is a continuation of International application PCT/IB2005/051285 filed Apr. 20, 2005, the entire content of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference thereto.

[0002] The invention relates to a covering of the kind serving for bulletproof armoring of a wall and comprising a number of bulletproof plates, a support having a base for mounting on the wall and a number of pockets arranged to keep the plates in positions in which they overlap or adjoin each other in twos.

[0003] Personnel from e.g. military units or humanitarian organizations in crisis areas often have to live and/or work in e.g. personnel containers which can be transported to and put up in the area in question easily and quickly.

[0004] However there are numerous examples of hostile persons shooting at the personnel in the containers via its walls, which normally are not strong enough in themselves to stop a projectile.

[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,178 discloses a container of a military logistic vehicle. The sidewalls of the container are covered with a bulletproof armoring comprising a number of bulletproof plates placed in pockets in a fabric covering. The fabric covering is divided into two single parts anchored each to a center ridge pole on the roof of the container. The two parts of the fabric covering are rolled up on the roof at the center ridge pole when being not used. The known bullet proof armoring suffers of the problem that it can be used only to one specific container since each part of the fabric covering consists of one single piece having a predetermined length and width. Another problem consists in that the roof of the container is not protected. Persons in the container therefore are not protected against projectiles fired from a higher level than the container or against hand bombs or fire from bazookas. Thus, there is a need for improved devices of this type.

[0006] A first aspect according to the invention is to provide a covering of the kind serving for bulletproof armoring of a wall and comprising a number of bulletproof plates, a support having a base for mounting on the wall and a number of pockets arranged to keep the plates in positions in which they overlap or adjoin each other in twos, wherein the covering is strong enough to stop a projectile.

[0007] A second aspect according to the invention is to provide this covering in a form and configuration that takes up as little room as possible in storage.

[0008] A third aspect according to the invention is to provide this covering in a form and configuration that can easily be transported to a crisis area together with the personnel containers.

[0009] A fourth aspect according to the invention is to provide this covering in a form and configuration that can be mounted on such personnel containers easily and quickly.

[0010] A fifth aspect according to the invention is to provide this covering in a form and configuration that cannot or only can be destroyed or removed from a personnel container with difficulty by unauthorized persons.

[0011] According to the invention, these aspects and advantages are obtained in a covering for bulletproof armoring of a wall, comprising a number of bulletproof plates, a support having a base for mounting on the wall, a number of pockets arranged for keeping the plates in positions in which they overlap or adjoin each other in twos, wherein the base of the support is divided into sections having free edges and at least one row of the pockets, and at least two cooperating flaps having free edges and being associated with the free edges of adjacent sections, with the flaps having connection means along their free edges for connection to adjacent flaps. Preferably, the cooperating flaps are fastened onto those of adjacent sections at a spaced distance from each of their opposite free edges by the connection means, such as e.g., zippers or straps or Velcro™ or hooks or buttons.

[0021] The present construction has the advantage that the sections can easily and safely be connected to coherent covering fitting to containers of different sizes. The covering will furthermore be easy to store, transport to the place of use, and mount on e.g. a container, which is to be made bulletproof.

[0022] If there are several flaps cooperating in pairs and having connection means, and the two flaps of each pair are fastened at a different distance from each of their opposite edges on the two base sections than the flaps of the other pairs, it is advantageously obtained that the same support can be used for bulletproof plates of different widths or optionally mounting rectangular plates either horizontally or vertically.

[0023] To eliminate the risk of the bulletproof plates being removed by unauthorized persons, the flaps and pockets can be located on opposite sides of the base and the pockets can face in towards the wall in the mounted state of the covering.

[0024] If the pockets furthermore are adapted to the size of the plates, and the pockets in each row in the sections are provided with an opening for insertion of one or more bulletproof plates, and each of these openings are located at a shorter distance from the opening of an adjacent pocket than the distance between the opening and bottom of a pocket, it is advantageously obtained that the bulletproof plates in a row are certain to overlap each other and simultaneously be secured effectively in their respective pockets.

[0025] According to the invention can the covering advantageously offer persons in a personnel container protection against fire like projectiles irrespective of the angle from which the fire is coming.

[0026] Unauthorized persons cannot or at least only with difficulty destroy the covering if at least the base of the support is made of a strong material, such as e.g. steel or textile. The sections of the support can be assembled by means of the connection means to a complete unit encompassing the container and thereby retained on this one. For further protection for example wires or cables can be used to lock the support to the container.

[0027] FIG. 1 shows a covering 1 according to the invention serving for bulletproof armoring of a container or enclosure 2. The covering comprises a support 3 with a number of pockets 4, with a bulletproof plate 5 located in each pocket. This is shown in more detail in As shown in FIG. 2. The enclosure also may have doors 8 and/or windows 9.

[0028] The covering is divided into a number of sections 6 indicated in solid line in FIG. 1. Each section is provided with a vertical arrangement of pockets 4 indicated in broken line shown in FIG. 6. As shown in FIG. 3, the sections are interconnected by means of e.g. a zipper. As noted above, this connection means can instead be a Velcro™ fastener, which is well known and is generally referred to as a hook and loop fastener. Alternatively, these fasteners can be straps or hooks or buttons, as desired to facilitate the particular configuration. Dividing the covering into sections makes it possible to, if so desired, keep possible doors 8 and windows 9 in the container free of covering easily and quickly, as the part of the section in question quite simply is cut off or folded in under the section.

[0029] FIGS. 2 and 3 are fractional sectional views of a vertically mounted wall, on which the bulletproof covering is mounted, said covering consisting more specifically of a base 11, a number of pockets 4, and a number of bulletproof plates 5 located in the pockets 4. The pockets are constructed in such a way that they overlap each other in an area 13. Thereby, it is advantageously obtained that there is no free space between the bulletproof plates through which shots can be fired.

[0030] FIGS. 3 and 4 are fractional views of the support seen from within and above, respectively, with in this case three sections 6a,6b,6c provided with zippers 14a, 14b, 14c for connecting the sections to each other.

[0031] As seen in e.g. FIGS. 3, 4, and 8, each zipper is connected to the associated section at a distance from the edge of this section via a flap 16a,b,c,d of a length that allows the section to be connected to an adjacent section in such a way that the bulletproof plates will overlap each other.

[0032] This flap can be made of the same material as the rest of the support or can be elastic. In the last-mentioned case, the advantage is obtained in that the sections and thereby the bulletproof plates are kept tightly towards each other in the overlapping area.

[0033] FIGS. 5 and 6 show, seen from within and from outside, respectively, a section 17 consisting of a base 11 having on one side two horizontal zippers 18a,b and four vertical zippers 19a,b and 20a,b, and on the other side six pockets overlapping each other as described with reference to FIG. 2. Each of the horizontal zippers are, as described earlier, fastened to the section via flaps 21a,b,c,d. The free edges of the section are shown as 23a-d, the free edges of the flaps are indicated as 24a-d, the opening of the pocket is 25, the bottom of the pocket is 26, the distance between the opening 25 and the bottom 26 of a pocket is L₁ and L₂ is the distance between the openings 25.

[0034] The bulletproof plates 5 can for example be rectangular. The zippers 19a and 19d serve, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, to connect adjacent sections when the bulletproof plates are placed in the pockets with their long side oriented horizontally. Thus, each plate at its perimeter will overlap an adjacent plate.

[0035] The zippers 20a and 20b serve, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, to connect adjacent sections when the bulletproof plates are placed in the pockets with their short side oriented horizontally. The free sides 22a and 22b of the sections are folded, in this case as shown in FIG. 8, onto the opposite side of the side on which the zippers are fastened.