Maker of bulletproof vests is bankrupt

[RamboLiberal]

Second Chance Body Armor Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of lawsuits accusing it of selling defective bullet-resistant vests to police officers.

The northern Michigan company is the nation's largest manufacturer of soft, concealable body armor for law enforcement. In a statement, the company announced the filing Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Grand Rapids.

The accusations generated several lawsuits, as well as federal and state investigations, and finger-pointing between Second Chance and the producer of Zylon, a high-tech synthetic fiber woven into many of Second Chance's vests.

<snip>

"For almost a year management has been involved in these draining Zylon related legal actions," Banducci said in a statement Sunday. "The filing will allow Second Chance management to focus on the management of the business so as to continue to serve its law enforcement and military customers."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04293/398270.stm

Anyone know how much of a supplier to military this company is?

[RobertSeattle]

1. How dare they sue a bullet proof vest maker for not being bullet proof!

[Career Prole]

3. Damn these trial lawyers and their frivolous lawsuits!

How's a hardworking corporation supposed to make a living if they have to defend themselves time and again from cops trying to make a buck over a silly little bullethole or two?
Bulletproof vests don't kill people...people kill people!
/sarcasm :shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Can anything really stop bullets from an assault rifle?

[Solon]

6. No...Small arms (Pistols mostly)

That's all they are designed to protect, I think that Ceramic or Steel body armor can stop rifle rounds, but I'm not sure.

[7th_Sephiroth]

8. i made some steel armor that can stop rifle rounds

it weighs 120lbs tho

[Solon]

11. That must of been a fun project...

I should try to make something like that...wonder how effective a liquid metal body armor would work? I think that it would absorb more of the impact than even steel or ceramic plates would.

http://www.liquidmetal.com/technology/

[7th_Sephiroth]

13. yeah it was

i made weariable steel samurai style armor with fine silk, too, its a huge hit at halloween

[intheflow]

2. Maybe they should have tried Teflon vests

seemed to work for Reagan

[w4rma]

5. continue selling to our police and military? No. They shouldn't

They should just be allowed to go bankrupt while another, hopefully better, corporation takes over their former contracts.

[Massacure]

7. There is no such thing as a bullet proof vest - they are just resistant

[Solon]

9. Good point, leaves a nasty bruise, and possibly a broken rib or two...

even when they do work.

[GregW]

10. Ned Kelly had the right idea ...

[MisterP]

12. "what are you going to do, bleed on me?"

[happyslug]

14. Zylon seems to deteriorate in areas of High Temperature and Humidity

For example 70% Humidity and 98 Degree F Temperature (Sounds like if you wore it next to your body it would degrade).

For some details see:
http://www.policeone.com/bodyarmor/AH_FAQs.pdf

[Frangible]

15. This is a story of one man's crusade against a lying corp...

Tyobo, Inc, a Japanese corporation makes a synthetic fiber called Zylon. Zylon is amazingly heat resistant and super-strong; about twice as strong as Kevlar.

For that reason, it began to be used in bullet-resistant vests. Second Chance Inc, which was the first to make kevlar vests, soon began production of Zylon products.

However, along the way, a serious problem was discovered by Tyobo. While Zylon was strong and good for many applications, heat and humidity would degrade the material's ballistic resistance at the rate of 50% per month.

Toybo notified Second Chance and its other body armor manufacturers of this issue. Rather than taking action, they denied any problem existed.

A man going by the alias of "Mad Dog" posted about these issues on http://www.tacticalforums.com, a LEO-related messageboard. Soon, news of this began to spread.

But everyone still denied these problems existed and were laboratory cases only, and did not reflect real world performance.

Until one day, when officer Tony Zappetella was shot and killed because his Second Chance Zylon vest failed. The department determined that the Zylon had degraded but Second Chance refused to admit any wrongdoing.

Other officers began to run into the problems as well and some critically injured. Even still, Second Chance and the other companies denied all wrongdoing.

As word began to go around from Mad Dog's site, eventually more pressure was put on these companies. Second Chance began to sell kevlar panel "upgrades" for its Zylon vests. However, in many cases these did not work well and individual officers were unable to afford them.

Finally, after many lawsuits by government agencies, Second Chance fianlly instituted a recall.

In the end, it was the greed of Second Chance that resulted in the failure of the vest of officer Tony Zappetella and his death, and one man on the internet that was able to bring awareness of this issue to law enforcement agencies and state attourney generals.

RIP officer.