Twined strands

The secret to stopping a bullet with a fairly soft fabric is that it behaves in much the same way as the netting on the goal frame used in hockey. When a hockey puck strikes a net at 100 km/h, its kinetic energy is transferred to the lengths of twine of the goal net. This twine is an interlaced mesh that has strands which stretch horizontally and vertically to disperse the energy of impact over a wide area. 

Black match may be made conveniently by twisting three or four strands of fine soft cotton twine together, impregnating the resulting cord with a paste made by moistening meal powder with water, wiping... 

Twine twln [ME twin, fr. OE twin, akin to MD twijn twine, OE twa two] (before 12c) n. (1) A plied yarn made from medium-twist single yarns with ply twist in the opposite direction. (2) A single-strand yarn, usually 3 or 4 mm in diameter, made of hard fibers, such as henequen, sisal, abaca, or chromium, and sufficiently stiff to perform satisfactorily on a mechanical grain binder. 

Hemp is a bast fiber harvested from the hemp plant and processed in a manner similar to flax. It is a coarser fiber than flax, darker in color and difficult to bleach. The fiber is strong and durable, and the strands of hemp fiber may reach six feet or longer. Individual hemp cells are 1/2-1 inch (1.2-2.5 cm) in length, and the fiber cross section is polygonal. The fiber is very stiff and contains considerable lignin. Although fine fabrics can be produced from select hemps, hemp is used mainly in coarse fabrics, including sack material, canvas, ropes, and twines. 

Mwamila [12,17] produced continuous twines of sisal fibres by the spinning together of single fibres. The twine is composed of several strands, each made of a bundle of individual fibres. The bond between the fibres is facilitated by friction and by the spiral form obtained during spinning. In the composites produced by Mwamila the twines were hand laid only at the bottom of a beam, and in that sense his components are not truly a composite material with uniformly distributed fibres. Reinforcement with 2% of twines enhanced the flexural strength... 

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