Material Science behind the Development of a New, Shapeable, Boron Carbide, Armour Material

Abstract

Over the past five years, a novel variant of boron carbide has been developed, and commercialised, for use in lightweight armours, especially in Hard Armour Plates (HAPs) for body armour systems, and up-armouring kits for helmets. Both six-shot and three-shot HAPs have been developed for protection against a comprehensive suite of high velocity rifle rounds. Extensive ballistic testing has demonstrated that this new variant performs as well as conventionally processed, more-costly, hot-pressed grades. The new boron carbide variant utilises a combination of Viscous Plastic Processing (VPP) and Pressureless Sintering (PS) and is capable of producing complex, 3D shapes in thin sections down to ~2.5mm in thickness. This paper describes some of the processing technologies and material science that have been used to develop this unique material. Importantly, the effects of bulk density, thickness variations, and HAP construction, on the ballistic performance of the finished product, are detailed.