Cooling And Trauma Attenuating Vest Review

Oct. 17, 2014
Over the years there have been a whole bunch of systems invented to mitigate the problems we face with wearing our body armor in hot climates.

If you’re like me, you’ve always had a love/hate relationship with your ballistic vest. I’ve had friends - fellow officers - who have taken rounds. Every one of my friends who were wearing their vest is alive today to talk about it. The ones who weren’t are no longer with us and that leaves a big hole in our hearts and that of their family’s. I know, there are some instances where wearing a vest isn’t going to help, but by wearing one the odds are much more in your favor if you inadvertently become a bullet sponge. That’s the love side of the equation.

Pushing a police cruiser around on a 10-hour shift in 100 plus degree weather and matching humidity is the hate side of that equation. It’s like you can never drink enough water and your air conditioner can never be cold enough. Feeling miserable is just part of the down side, because studies have shown the more dangerous aspects are decreased cognitive performance, decreased critical decision-making abilities, increased exhaustion, dehydration and possibly heat illness or heat stroke.

Over the years there have been a whole bunch of systems invented to mitigate the problems we face with wearing our body armor in hot climates. Chemical Ice packs placed in pockets of an undershirt is one that was particularly memorable. Not only would they “loose their cool” in a short time frame, but they’d almost burn your skin from being too cold when you first put them on. One that actually worked, but was a bit unwieldy was invented by a San Jose PD cop. It involved a plastic fitting that covered an air conditioner vent in your cruiser and a hose with a special plastic “delivery device” that you stuck down your shirt between your vest and your undershirt. The down side was remembering to pull it out when exiting the car.

AIR Technology

You can’t change the weather but CORTAC has come up with a viable solution - their CTAV Shirt Carrier System. It’s a two-pronged approach to keeping you cooler.

The first prong is a vest component that’s has a pressurized dual air chamber system and promotes active airflow between your body and your vest. It also enables natural evaporative cooling. AIR promotes active air-flow between torso and armor and almost more importantly, it delivers additional protection from ballistic and non-ballistic blunt force trauma. CORTAC conducted live-fire demonstrations and ballistic lab testing, the CTAV decreased back face trauma signatures in test media by as much as 62 percent. That’s a significant reduction and it can make the difference between being put out of the fight or continuing it and slapping the cuffs on some hairball just before taking him jail. CORTAC includes a bulb device with a one-way valve to inflating or deflating the CTAV.

EverDry

The second prong is a technology CORTAC calls EverDry. It’s the science behind the CTAV’s performance in promoting evaporation and convection between you and your armor. The material making up the pressurized vest component is infused with a nanocrystal coating. It’s hydrophilic and draws moisture away from your skin and keeps sweat from being trapped.

Simply Put

The CTAV is a system that works by letting outside airflow between the body and the armor. Your body heat naturally vents from behind the armor and is no longer trapped. Then the nanocrystals, being hydrophilic, prevent sweat from beading for enhanced convection evaporation. And, it also acts as a moisture barrier, so moisture won’t be absorbed into your armor carrier.

Wearing It

The vest components can be attached to a hard plate carrier with included hook and loop stick on straps. They also include adhesive hook and loop circles to make it fit better to the carrier. Also included in the CTAV Shirt Carrier System is a base layer shirt. The CTAV components fit into pockets sewn into the shirt. The material is made from a wicking fiber and is worn between you and your concealable body armor. The shirt is also infused with the EverDry nanocrystal surface technology. In any case, I sure wish someone like CORTAC invented this about 30-years ago when I was pushing a patrol car around Southern California. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so testy!

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