Evaluation of Injury Risk behind a Shield

Trade Agreement: Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid
Competitive Procurement Strategy: Best Overall  Proposal
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Nature of Requirements: 

This bid solicitation cancels and supersedes previous bid solicitation number W7701-186626/A dated August 2, 2018 with a closing of September 14, 2018 at 2:00 pm EDT. A debriefing or feedback session will be provided upon request to bidders/offerors/suppliers who bid on the previous solicitation.

BACKGROUND:

Shields have been used by military and police units that specialize in anti-terrorist actions, hostage rescue, riot control and siege-breaking. As such, when approaching any potentially armed individual in a public area, ballistic shields are an important part of the 1st line of protection.

A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, mounted on the forearm or mounted on a trolley for the bigger and heavier ones. They can defeat armed attack (shrapnel, thrown projectiles, splash from Molotov cocktail) in riots cases and stop or deflect ammunitions (low-velocity handgun, shotgun, and high-velocity rifle calibers at muzzle velocities) in terrorism attack. They can cover the entire surface of a soldier including many body areas that are not protected by body armour and simultaneously offer protection to the many other persons situated behind the person equipped with the shield that are also exposed to the threat.

Many ballistic shields are designed to be in compliance with the ballistic materials test protocol NIJ-Std-0108.01. That protocol is for material testing and do not take into consideration the potential impact on the hand and arm holding the shield from the transient deformation. The bones fractures that may be the consequences from the impact may result in loss of strength followed by a drop of the shield, exposing the user and the followers to direct firearms shooting.

For shield personal protective equipment to be effective, it is essential to understand the effect of a short duration, high energy impact loading on the lower arm resistance. Assessment of body impact limit (impact force, event duration, impulse, momentum, etc.) and injury risk typically involves cadaveric specimens. However, these specimens are not suitable to certify protective equipment as their access is limited, the variability between samples is high and specimens are generally from elderly subjects showing a reduced mineral bone density. Therefore, cadaveric tests are essentials but results need to be analysed with great care to establish body limit representative of the military user group that is young, healthy and highly trained.
Once body impact limit data and injury risk is known, with adequate transfer function, these data can be associated to a surrogate which is a reproducible tests method usable for certification. There are various surrogate uses by industries - such as crash test dummies for automotive and defence - but the materials are often too stiff, their geometry and joints are oversimplified and do not truly represent biofidelic segments. To better assess and design a protective equipment such as a ballistic shield, we need to establish i) how the force/pressure is spatially distributed with time over the impact zone, ii) what load and energy is transferred to the body, III) what is the tolerance limit of the lower arm.

TASKS:

In the first year, the contractor will conduct a literature review and will acquire post mortem human subject (PMHS) lower arm specimens and equipment to prepare the set up for the specimen evaluation. 

The second year will focus on developing the tests protocol using a mechanical surrogate under conditions as close as possible to operational use for a ballistic shield followed by PMHS lower arm specimens testing. Influence of the relative dimensions of the specimens (5th centil, 50th centil, 95th centil) must be considered.

The final year will complete the testing and the analysis of results in order to provide recommendations as for the Behind Armour Blunt Trauma (BABT) injury criteria to use to qualify personal protection ballistic shield. Tasks specified in the Statement of Work are: 

Task 5.1: Lower arm surrogate 
Task 5.2 : Bones fracture limit evaluation

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

1.2.1 The organization for which the services are to be rendered is Defence Research and Development Canada - Valcartier (DRDC Valcartier)

The period of the Contract is from Contract award to March 31, 2021.

Ballistic tests are performed at DRDC- Valcartier Research Center. All other work must be performed on Contractor site.

1.2.2 There are security requirements associated with this requirement. For additional information, consult Part 6 - Security, Financial and Other Requirements, and Part 7 - Resulting Contract Clauses. For more information on personnel and organization security screening or security clauses, Bidders should refer to the Contract Security Program of Public Works and Government Services Canada (http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/esc-src/introduction-eng.html) website.

1.2.3 The requirement is subject to the provisions of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).

1.2.4 The requirement is limited to Canadian goods and/or services.

1.2.5   This bid solicitation allows bidders to use the epost Connect service provided by Canada Post Corporation to transmit their bid electronically.  Bidders must refer to Part 2 entitled Bidder Instructions, and Part 3 entitled Bid Preparation Instructions, of the bid solicitation, for further information.

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Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

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