Stab and ballistic resistant articles and the process of making

A process for forming a dimensionally stable open fabric, the process comprising:

• a) providing a woven fabric comprising a plurality of warp elongate bodies interwoven and bonded with a plurality of transversely disposed weft elongate bodies, said warp elongate bodies and weft elongate bodies each comprising thermoplastic high tenacity elongate bodies having a tenacity of at least about 14 g/denier and a tensile modulus of at least about 300 g/denier, wherein adjacent warp elongate bodies are spaced apart from each other by a distance equivalent to at least about 10% of the width of the warp elongate bodies and adjacent weft elongate bodies are spaced apart from each other by a distance equivalent to at least about 10% of the width of the weft elongate bodies;
• b) at least partially melting the thermoplastic polymer of the high tenacity warp elongate bodies and/or the high tenacity weft elongate bodies;
• and
• c) allowing the melted thermoplastic polymer of the high tenacity warp elongate bodies and/or the high tenacity weft elongate bodies to solidify, whereby the high tenacity warp elongate bodies and the high tenacity weft elongate bodies are bonded to each other, thereby forming a dimensionally stable open fabric.