Neat stuff! Especially the crack arresting layer, thinking of doing something similar in an upcomming project using 3 plies of a carbon-aramid-glass tri-weave and steel mesh. If its not like a trade secret, how thick is the arresting layer? Also do you sell PE backers by themselves?
After many years of experimenting and testing I’d suggest retaining focus on the real purposes of the CA layer…. 1. Holds ceramic strike face in place relative to any neighbor fragments… and 2. Reduces ceramic particles ejecting from the strike face. Re number 1: really don’t need to be overly fancy. High density PE works, especially 250gm2. Re 2: the thickness has an impact on reduction of ceramic particulate ejection starting at .5mm and most materials optimize this effect at 4mm thickness. We are using some graphene weave now and it works well… very strong.
Regarding the PE plates - we do not provide them separately for a number of reasons. Believe it or not there are lower pressure solutions for shaping PE plates that are highly effective.
However I don’t want to sound like a know it all. Learning more every day and with every conversation. I followed you and would be real interested in your progress. Although the armor industry is tough and cyclical… if catastrophe really hits - we will need a network of armor builders across the nation that can keep folks supplied.
That actually angers me. They make it seem as though they are making it lighter by way of their oh so hyper advanced methods and knowledge of material science. Oh thats sick you use graphene with yours. Ive seen some videos about how to make graphene. Its very energy intensive, but doable DIY. I have an idea for a sort of custom armor system. Thats why im looking up videos like yours here. These dangerous times call for extreme measures so i figure extreme protection is in order. If I recall correctly, graphene is 200 times stronger than steel. I dont remember its weight in comparison to steel though. I want to make segmented overlapping plates for an armor system inspired by german gothic armor and samurai armor systems of old. Its gonna be stupendously heavy but i have some ideas for dealing with that.
IMO that shouldn’t be the standard by which you judge life saving products. I have severe glaucoma and the glare from lights causes significant discomfort. Thanks for your patience.
For various reasons, some manufacturing is moving to South Korea. There are other parts of Asia (Japan-South Asia) that provide other related goods and services. Of course the vast manufacturing expertise remains in China. Like any country, in China there are renowned specialists and also those who permit economics to dominate decision-making. The majority of the world’s raw materials involving ceramic powder and processing comes from China. They have been creating specialty ceramics for 10,000 years. We follow performance and specs… not country names. We have found that pursuit of performance versus costs gives us a superior product that can compete with any body armor plate on the market. Our sources include companies with proven abilities to meet and sustain our materials specs. We also use Italy’s Bitossi for an increasing amount of work - although they cannot provide a performance or cost based equivalent to the mosaic ceramic tile arrays that we use for performance reasons. Bitossi is quite good at monolithics and we have to build those plates entirely differently. I have various NDAs that restrict me from discussing details, but you would be surprised to know the number of large US-based manufacturers of polyethylene material who source Chinese fibers. Within the confines of all of these things, business strategies are developed. For us, it is less about the country of origin of source material and more about purity, quality, performance and cost. We have evolved to this view over the years as we have noticed various US-based materials that were either substandard (not always) or did not exist (ceramic tile arrays) at an acceptable price point for our customers. For example, we occasionally reach out to specialty ceramics firms in the USA for quotes involving ceramic array shapes and thickness. These quotes usually involve the actual testing of a sample I provide them. Because of the cost of US labor and due to the manufacturing differences between powder pressing and injection molding- the US quotes usually come in 4-5x higher for the same quality. We will continue to seek and establish sourcing partnerships that put performance versus affordability in focus.
