 Seyntex: A spectrum of military clothing and equipment
Paul Vandenbroucke, International Sales Manager, discusses Seyntex’s role in military clothing and protection
Seyntex’s central manufacturing and research and
development (R&D) hub is located in Belgium,
supported by facilities in Romania and the Far East.
In total, Seyntex directly employs about 1000 people
with an annual turnover of €45-50m.
Paul Vandenbroucke, International Sales Manager,
explained, “About two thirds of our business is with the
military. Our customers belong to most of the ministries of
defence in Europe, including: France, Italy, Holland
Belgium, UK, Ireland, Greece, Turkey, the Nordic countries,
as well as North Africa. We deliver rucksack systems,
sleeping bags, combat clothing, bullet proof vests and
fragmentation jackets. In fact we deliver the full range of
military clothing and equipment and tentage.”
WHAT’S NEW IN TERMS OF PROTECTION?
“Our main speciality is ballistics,” explained
Vandenbroucke. “We weave Kevlar ourselves and we
produce fragmentation jackets, bullet-proof vests and
ballistic plates as well as soft ballistic panels for truck and
jeeps. We do that both for the military and the police,”
In terms of personal protection, Vandenbroucke
believes however there is certain demand amongst
customers for increased modularity for personal protection
equipment, “However we don’t think there is benefit in taking
the modular approach too far. There are already issues
where soldiers are not wearing what they should. This is
already a big discussion in the military about this issue.”
CBRN
Seyntex is not a mask producer, but if that is required as
part of the overall package, the company works with a
number of international partners. Paul Vandenbroucke
explained, “We only produce the suits. We produce the
outer fabric ourselves in several ranges; normal or flame
retardant, plain colour or printed camouflage with nearinfrared
properties, whatever the customer wants. For
the filter material we work together with different
partners (spherical adsorbers, compressed foam …). We
are also looking for new solutions which could include
carbon fabrics.”
To ensure comfortable wearability, Seyntex are
pursuing the difficult balance between weight and
protection as Vandenbroucke explained, “For lightweight
solutions Seyntex is combining an outer fabric of about
160 gr with a filter material of roughly 240 gr which gives
the customer a CBRN complex of about 400 gr/m². Of
course Seyntex is studying carefully the correct air
permeability in order to comply with all NATO requirements.
That is always a difficult balance to strike.”
Seyntex’s business in this area has been centred in
Belgium and Holland. Recently the company has become a
partner with the Turkish firm CAN, supplying CBRN suits to
the Turkish military for the next 10 years.
MULTI-SPECTRAL CAMOUFLAGE NETS
More or less all camouflage nets today are multispectral,
automatically providing camouflaged from infrared
detection. Vandenbroucke argues that while
effectiveness against radar detection and near infra-red
sensors is significant amongst products generally in the
market, the capability to preventing detection by far
infra-red detectors world wide is more limited, despite
what some may claim. Vandenbroucke continued,
“Seyntex are involved in all these areas but, the problem
with personal camouflage is that the offered solutions in
the market have only a limited effect.”
Vandenbroucke explains why, “In terms of thermal
infra-red camouflage on a soldier, you can have a good
thermal signature if the soldier is in a certain environment
for example bushes where his thermal emissions are
more or less the same as the thermal emission of his
surroundings. If however, the soldier is moving to another
location with a different background such as woods or
streets, with a different thermal emissivity than the first
environment, the camouflaged soldier can be
automatically discovered by thermal imagers.” New
maturing technology is around the corner although
delivering that in a fieldable application will be a
challenge. “Nano-technology is coming and many expect
that using this technology, heat could be adapted to the
surroundings, although no-one knows exactly how and
when that would be done yet.”
R&D
In R&D terms the company is focussing on ballistic and CBRN
protection as well as load carrying systems. Vandenbroucke
said, “They have to be integrated and compatible with the
new PALS systems which are on the market.”
Seyntex has its own fully equipped, full spectrum
textile lab capable of undertaking work up to an including
assessments of infra-red protection, and an R & D team
with up to seven people, solely tasked with new
development. Seyntex R&D expertise also led it to cooperation
agreements with militaries and government
research bodies, which in the past have included those of
France, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK. ■ |
