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N.I.J. Question

7 visible archived posts · 7 preserved total · topic ID 1122

S.A. 11 Feb 2006

I believe that the doble lock case of Hiatts HSS9 is made in Zinc and I believe is a Zinc are a breakable metal thus Hiatts HSS9 are it as robust and solid as of Hiatts 2050 or 2054? Does Zinc resist it has violent shocks? Are Hiatts HSS9 approved N.I.J.?

stan willis 11 Feb 2006

The HSS9 is not on the NIJ list.
Stan

josef5 11 Feb 2006

I believe that the doble lock case of Hiatts HSS9 is made in Zinc and I believe is a Zinc are a breakable metal thus Hiatts HSS9 are it as robust and solid as of Hiatts 2050 or 2054? Does Zinc resist it has violent shocks? Are Hiatts HSS9 approved N.I.J.?

Generally zinc is not quite strong or force resistant. But I don´t guess HIATTS use only zinc, this is probably some alloy of zinc + any other metal. There are many technologies today, I am not expert via materials. In addition all companies keep such an info as a part of their know-how, so there is almost no chance how to get exact answer. But my personal opinion is that this is not only zinc, but some zinc alloy.

Josef, CZ
http://cz-pouta.wz.cz

Anonymous 11 Feb 2006

I believe that the doble lock case of Hiatts HSS9 is made in Zinc and I believe is a Zinc are a breakable metal thus Hiatts HSS9 are it as robust and solid as of Hiatts 2050 or 2054? Does Zinc resist it has violent shocks? Are Hiatts HSS9 approved N.I.J.?

http://www.nlectc.org/testing/handcuffscpl.html

BFW 11 Feb 2006

I believe that the doble lock case of Hiatts HSS9 is made in Zinc and I believe is a Zinc are a breakable metal thus Hiatts HSS9 are it as robust and solid as of Hiatts 2050 or 2054? Does Zinc resist it has violent shocks? Are Hiatts HSS9 approved N.I.J.?

Zinc by itself is a rather soft metal, similar to tin, lead and nickel, so I doubt the thing is made purely of that material.

There might be two possibilities here.

(1) The area is zinc plated. Zinc is now the most widely used material in galvanizing to resist corrosion, and works better than tin or nickel. Nearly all "tin" cans are actually zinc plated. For industrial use, zinc dichromate is a fantastic plating for steel, although it has a yellow/blue tint and looks a bit like tarnished brass.

(2) The item is made of a true zinc alloy, possibly Prestal, an alloy of aluminum and zinc; very strong stuff, equal to steel, but lightweight and easily molded, yet a little costly to make. It's similar to Duraluminum (an alloy of aluminum and copper originally developed in Germany for the framework of Zeppelins) but doesn't tarnish nearly as easily.

Dorson 12 Feb 2006

I believe that the doble lock case of Hiatts HSS9 is made in Zinc and I believe is a Zinc are a breakable metal thus Hiatts HSS9 are it as robust and solid as of Hiatts 2050 or 2054? Does Zinc resist it has violent shocks? Are Hiatts HSS9 approved N.I.J.?

I just looked up Prestal and it is not unlike other alloys of the past of Zinc & Aluminum know as Gamak & Zamak. One of the major problems of these alloys is the brittleness of the alloy. The closer you make it to the strength of steel it becomes very brittle and easy to fracture. Making it less brittle and the alloy is not as strong and weaker. Hiatt has had problems in making there darby patter restraints with this alloy. I have even heard it rumored that they have cast it over fine wire mess to give it added strenght to compensate. It comes down the ole cost thing, if they were to make it out of steel or other suitable material to be of high strenght would cost more than using Zn-Al alloys which is simple to cast and costs much less.

-Dorson

BFW 12 Feb 2006

I believe that the doble lock case of Hiatts HSS9 is made in Zinc and I believe is a Zinc are a breakable metal thus Hiatts HSS9 are it as robust and solid as of Hiatts 2050 or 2054? Does Zinc resist it has violent shocks? Are Hiatts HSS9 approved N.I.J.?

When you first read the NIJ testing procedures, they sound pretty good; all the stuff about torques, salt water corrosion, tensile strength, etc.

But there is no "impact" testing involved.

Perhaps they should add something along the line of: "Smack the test cuffs as hard as you can four or five times against a concrete curb or brick wall and see if they still work." Maybe drop them from the top of a five story building?

Oh, well. Despite all the laboratory testing that may be done, there's never any substitute for real world "field" testing, discovering the amazing and sometimes incredibly idiotic things folks do in real life, perhaps by design, but usually by accident. It seems ordinary people can teach the experts quite a bit if they only choose to listen.