Domestic technical textiles Industry Segment-wise consumption of ...

• Harness - The pack is fastened to the person's back or front with a harness. The harness is
specially constructed so that the parachutist is not injured as the forces of deceleration
(slowing down), gravity and wind are transmitted to the wearer's body as the chute opens.
• Rip-cord - A rip-cord is used to open the duck pack and allow the chute to deploy (pop out).
The rip-cord can be used in three different ways (pulling the rip manually, a static line
connected to the aircraft deploys the chute as the person jumps or automatically as the pilot is
ejected from the aircraft).
• Suspension lines - Suspension lines, or shrouds, connect the canopy (parachute cloth) to a
ring on the harness. The line is continuous from the ring, through a seam in the shroud over
the top of the chute and back down to the ring again.
Parachute canopies are primarily made of high tensile nylon multi-filament fibres, generally ripstop
woven, from 32 to 200 deniers. Ripstop fabrics are woven fabrics whilst using a special reinforcing
technique that makes them very resistant to tearing and ripping. Older lightweight ripstop fabrics
display the thicker interlocking thread patterns in the material quite prominently, but modern weaving
techniques make the ripstop threads less obvious.
Ripstop fabrics have high strength to weight ratio. The smaller tears and rips cannot easily spread
further in the fabric. Air-permeability is one of the most important characteristics because it
determines the behaviour of the parachute itself, the rate of descent depends dramatically on this
characteristic. The fabric should be of minimal thickness to enable folding of the parachute into a bag.
Harness, webbing, tapes etc are made-up of high tensile nylon yarn (denier range 210 to 840 denier)
as nylon has the highest strength to weight ratio.
Market dynamics and key growth drivers
Parachutes can be broadly classified into three categories based on usage: Defence, aero-sports and
space vehicles.
• The parachutes applications in defence are - Emergency Escape Parachute Assemblies for
aircrafts with fixed seats or assisted, escape seats, Personnel Restraint Harness for seated or
moving crew members, Airborne Forces’ Parachute Assemblies including Reserve
parachutes, Aerial Delivery (Supply Dropping) Parachute Assemblies, Aircraft Landing
Brake and Anti-Spin Parachute Assemblies, Parachute devices for flares, markers, bombs and
other munitions.