On the safe side with Twaron
It is an unfortunate reality that the threat of car-based crimes (car theft, hold-ups, and kidnappings) in Brazil remains highly critical, with an average of 583 vehicles stolen every day in the state of São Paolo alone. Many criminals use weapons when carrying out their crimes, and they don’t shy away from violence. And because of an increasing awareness of car-based crime, the armored-car market in Brazil is growing at an average of 20% each year. Two companies in São Paolo, WKR Prime and Autostar, are using Teijin Aramid’s Twaron fiber to provide ballistic protection for cars.
A growing market for first-hand armored vehicles
“Social inequality, combined with a weak political structure, has increasingly pushed the ordinary citizens of Brazil to seek their own protection from car-based crime,” says Alex Cirillo, Industrial Director at car armoring company Autostar. “We’re experiencing a growing demand for our services. Since being established in 1992, Autostar has become the biggest armored-vehicle retailer in São Paulo. We started by selling BMW armored vehicles, but we have since incorporated other brands to our offering, including Land Rover, Volvo, Mini, Jaguar, Chrysler, and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, among others. The ballistic protective panels we use integrate Twaron to great effect, and our customers are happy. Despite the political and economic issues that Brazil is facing, we expect the demand to go on growing.”
Converting cars to armored vehicles
In fact, the demand for ballistic protection in vehicles is so pressing in parts of Brazil that there is also a market for converting unprotected cars to armored cars. For the last 15 years, WKR Prime has been manufacturing ballistic safety products, such as protective panels, shields, and bulletproof vests, and they now also offer their customers the possibility of making their cars bulletproof. “Above all, we’re partners with Teijin Aramid because we want to offer a great service in improving the protection of cars,” says Jorge Tebet, Director at WKR Prime. “Our customers focus on price, reliability, and technical support, and we’re able to deliver them outstanding products and service through our collaboration with Teijin Aramid. They provide us with good technical support, and help us with the development of new products. We hope that our collaboration can continue to grow, and that we can carry on meeting the demands of customers.”
“The Brazilian car armoring market is on a steep growth curve, and we have growing penetration. We foresee this strong growth continuing for some years. With such a strong demand, our focus has to be on the quality of design – we want to offer our customers the best product available on the market.” – Mauricio Portella, Director of Autostar.
In the fast lane with Twaron
Both Autostar and WKR Prime choose Twaron for its high tenacity, impact resistance and energy absorption properties, which allows them to offer excellent ballistic security. What’s more, with its great weight-to-strength ratio, Twaron can offer protection without limiting the performance of the car. “To develop an armored car, you need to have the right balance between weight and protection,” says Alex Cirillo. “Twaron is an excellent material, and ranks among the very best para-aramid fibers. We can confidently offer our customers light cars that can deliver complete ballistic protection for hand gunfire. Thanks to Twaron, we are confident that we can continue to drive our growth in the armored-car market in Brazil!”
