WOVEN FABRIC CONSTRUCTIONS HAVING HIGH COVER FACTORS AND FILL YARNS WITH A WEIGHT PER UNIT LENGTH LESS THAN THE WEIGHT PER UNIT LENGTH OF WARP YARNS OF THE FABRIC

摘要

The present disclosure describes puncture-resistant fabric layers comprising woven fabrics with unique, densely-woven structures. For example, such a fabric layer ca comprise a high cover factor woven fabric having a fill yarn cover factor of at least about 75 % of full and a warp yarn cover factor of at least about 100 % of full formed of a plurality of fill yarns and a plurality of warp yarns, wherein the weight per unit length of the fill yarns is less than the weight per unit length of the warp yarns. Such constructions can, in some embodiments, consist essentially of high tenacity fibers having a tensile breaking strength of at least about 10g/Denier. Such high cover, small fill yarn constructions enable the disclosed fabrics to be woven to have a decreased overall weight per unit surface area and an improved tensile balance, when compared to known high cover factor, densely woven fabric constructions. Also disclosed are various techniques for forming light weight yarns comprising or consisting essentially of high tenacity fibers for forming the small fill yarns and/or warp yarns of the high cover factor, small fill yarn-constructed fabrics disclosed. The high cover factor, small fill yarn-constructed woven fabrics can, in some embodiments, comprise or consist essentially of natural and/or synthetic fibers having a tensile breaking strength less than about 10 g/Denier, yielding densely woven fabrics with improved puncture, cut, and tear resistance when compared to fabrics formed of the same materials but with conventional woven constructions.