I used to do in house testing with a mfg of boron carbide plates, testing to ensure we met military compliance. Not just body armor... but lots of vehicle armor (helicopters and aircraft) so we needed to use some larger calibers, including fragmentary munitions. Was a fun gig. We had to actually make the ammunition for the test gun, to meet the proper velocities... ie you cant realistically reliably test vehicle armor at combat engagement distances, so downloaded rounds to attain the same velocity as combat engagement ranges are used. Yall using a thin metal shock absorbing strip between the ceramic and polyethylene backing like on the ESAPI?
Hello - very interesting and thank you for sharing that info. There is no metal in our plates… we use ceramic to UHMWPE via adhesive interface that is non-epoxy and will elongate enough to absorb energy. Some models have a carbon/aramid thermoplastic on the wear face.
I used to do in house testing with a mfg of boron carbide plates, testing to ensure we met military compliance. Not just body armor... but lots of vehicle armor (helicopters and aircraft) so we needed to use some larger calibers, including fragmentary munitions. Was a fun gig. We had to actually make the ammunition for the test gun, to meet the proper velocities... ie you cant realistically reliably test vehicle armor at combat engagement distances, so downloaded rounds to attain the same velocity as combat engagement ranges are used.
Yall using a thin metal shock absorbing strip between the ceramic and polyethylene backing like on the ESAPI?
Hello - very interesting and thank you for sharing that info. There is no metal in our plates… we use ceramic to UHMWPE via adhesive interface that is non-epoxy and will elongate enough to absorb energy. Some models have a carbon/aramid thermoplastic on the wear face.