Method for producing a body protection item and resulting body protection item

A manufacturing method of a body protection comprising:

• producing a structural shell with a maximum thickness of 5 mm, made of thermoplastic material, and defining a concave interior and a convex exterior;
• over-moulding an expanded polystyrene layer overlapping the concave interior of the structural shell, producing its adhesion by close contact to the structural shell;
• wherein the structural shell is produced by means of the distributed placement, in a mould, of a mixture of thermoplastic material and reinforcing fibres stable at temperatures equal to or lower than the melting temperature of the thermoplastic material, the closing of the mould and the heating of the mould above the melting temperature of the thermoplastic material, causing the melting of the thermoplastic material without damaging the reinforcing fibres, and the subsequent cooling of the mould, hardening the thermoplastic material with the reinforcing fibres embedded therein forming a composite material;
• and
• wherein:
• the thermoplastic material and the reinforcing fibres are brought into the mould integrated in a woven fabric or in a non-woven fabric;
• overlapping layers of woven fabric and/or of non-woven fabric are brought into the mould;
• and
• at least the layers constituting the extrados of the structural shell are constituted, before melting, only by thermoplastic material strands, producing a structural shell with greater density of reinforcing fibres in a concave interior than in a convex exterior thereof;
• wherein
• following the manufacturing of the structural shell, and without removing said structural shell from the manufacturing mould, the part of the mould defining the concave interior is removed, being substituted by a new mould part defining, together with the part of the mould that has shaped the convex exterior of the structural shell, an over-moulding chamber containing the structural shell, and the expanded polystyrene layer is over-moulded on the concave interior of the structural shell in said over-moulding chamber.