Adam Savage has built a titanium Iron Man suit, but is it bulletproof? He takes it to the firing range to test whether it would withstand gunfire in a real life. Subscribe to Discovery Australia for more great clips: bit.ly/Discove...
@@patreekotime4578 no as in same body density as human body that is it mimics the same soft tissue and flesh in a human body so piercing that pierces human body same
I think there’s a reason that medieval knights wore padded shirts beneath their plate armor. Tony probably felt a few of those impacts in his mark one armor, and likely added some padding or a shock absorption of some kind. Because Tony always learns from his mistakes.
@@WalrusWinking The Mark I seems to have been constructed largely out of shell casings from Stark ordinance so titanium or aluminium are possible. Also, yeah, the sheer mass of the Mark I would probably negate any significant transfer of momentum.
@@3Tommii it’s a comment. A comment on a video. I may be wrong, but generally, I imagine people comment on a video, after, they watch it. Hence why it’s called a, _comment_
The flexing would actually help dissipate kinetic energy so it isn't focused in one spot, it just needs something like graphene or tungsten scales or something like that on the outside of the plating to provide a solid impact face... Not that they'd have the additional funding to apply something like that.
This is why medieval knights’ breastplates developed a V-shaped ridge under the neck at the top of the breastplate - it caught arrowheads and redirected them away from the neck of the knight.
@@caioaugusto3138 It was probably one-heck-of-a-knight. Or somethin... This armor needs fiber foam pads with some rubber to absorb the impact. And an A.I. and paint. And Tony Stark.
@@ForcesNL ...you do know they used a gamberson underneath the armour, don't you? Some even used chainmail aswell. And the force of a deflected arrow is not so great. It still could hurt you, but most likely would do naught against a well armoured knight.
@@helojoeywala6622 this is a long perpetuated myth which is really ironic given context. Jamie and Adam liked eachother fine. They just weren’t FRIENDS. They were coworkers and nothing else. People have taken that as them hating eachother which has never been stated by either party even slightly.
@@Khunkurisu I think there was some interview with Adam where he tells that conflict with Jamie was played up for drama by production and they both got through it once they got that
One thing to keep in mind is that ideally your armor doesn't contact your skin directly in places you are likely to get hit. That room for padding is crucial for protecting your life from the concussive forces
With handguns like that, there's actually not that much momentum (only as much as recoils into your hand... Newtown's 3rd law and all that...). Simply spreading it out over a wide area is perfectly sufficient.
@@Ogrematic Also the suit doesn't just rest on the flesh, it is a self-contained, rigid shell cage so the shock is absorbed by the complete exoskeleton, not the wearer's flesh.
@@StrykerV8 was it proven false? I googled it and read about one article that said she had mental health. These types of situations are difficult as there's no way to prove that either one is lying or not.
The Ironman suit was made with a titanium alloy, to compensate for high attitude flight. It also had a layer that went underneath the outer armor that housed sensors and vital scanners. there is also the mechanical layer. The MKII and MKIII were the closest to real world possibilities. I am sure the Armor was thicker, and that the inner suit has shock dispersal abilities so that the damage to the pilot would be minimal. In the movies he still felt the impact. Just proves how tough Tony Stark was.
Anything with multiple layers already disperses shock pretty well. The later movies had this weird obsession with making the suit look really sleek and thin. Take a look at the Iron man 3 poster, the scale of Tony's real hand is way off to the rest of the suit.
Well idk, the movies make it seem like the armor actually just absorbs everything. Tony stark was crashing into and being hit by things that in the real world, even with a crazy suit, would have liquified him inside the suit. There’s a certain suspension of disbelief required for iron man
It also likely wouldn't be sitting directly on his chest. Similar to medieval plate armor, you wouldn't want the metal to be in direct contact with your body, since any force distributed into the armor would then transfer right into your squishy organs. Leave a little space and it has room to dent in safely, or distribute that force elsewhere throughout the armor, instead of delivering damage into your body.
The thing is, there’s no “actual armour”, it’s a movie. You can’t make such a suit to be rigid everywhere, covers every corner, is self propelled, and also totally flexible, that doesn’t even obey the laws of geometry. And, the bad guys are using at least, AK-47 not hand guns, very big difference.
I think they did make some costumes of various Mark Iron Man suits for the MCU, but the things is they were claustrophobic for Robert Downey Jr on top of every other cons that came with it so they switched to CGI
@@chengong388 "You can’t make such a suit to be rigid everywhere and also totally flexible" Clearly it is not. It has hinges and joins that move, but the rest functions like plates of metal would: they don't move or bend very much. "is self propelled," That's a little more complicated. With enough thrust, you can make anything self-propelled. But in this case, you have to miniaturize the thrusters and the power source, which isn't possible with current technology, though there are similar ideas: Gravity's Jet Suit is an actual product that does this, (admittedly without the weight of titanium armor added onto that).
@@Kurse_of_Kall what about under the armpit? self-propelled as in all the joints be motorized, not in terms of flight, that obviously makes this even more difficult but not relevant in terms of protection.
I'm certain I can speak for mostly everyone here and elsewhere, that the world misses Mythbusters, and Adam, we definitely need the show to come back in some form, just like this video.
You'd end up using layers of composite materials of course, even if the outermost layer behaved much like this titanium. Possibly some polymer or carbon fibre layers. Probably something like neoprene as a liner.
@@KaptainKuantum no it’s imaginary, like the material that made up frodos fancy shirt armour. What was it made of? Elf whispers? Or cotton? Doesn’t matter, it’s a prop. Go hug your mom or something, feel something real maybe ❤
@@freddierhodes8201 he actually redirects the tank shot, which this video somewhat sheds some light on. but yknow, this is also why Stark doesn't build his suits out of titanium like Adams is...in fact he doesnt use titanium in any suit at all, its titanium alloy...
Yes, he didn't use larger calibre rounds, but Iron Man's armor is thicker and made with other materials making it much stronger. The fact that a thinner Titanium suit stops those rounds EASILY is pretty impressive.
considering how those barely left a mark I would say that low caliber rifle shots would dent but it's probably bulletproof. (unless you use like a 50 cal but I mean...come on)
Great point! I did a fair amount of research in metal printing (mostly aluminum), and there's a lot of variables to tweak to maximize certain characteristics. I am 100% positive someone with the know-how could make an even more impact resistant part than this, just by adjusting printing parameters and stock formulation.
@@zack9912000 No, not unless they make the plates much thicker. This wouldn't have any chance of stopping a rifle round currently. That being said, if you changed the design and made it have some extremely sharp angles and made it thicker it could stop 5.56, or deflect it at least.
@@JohnDoe_Gaming the Ironman suit ignores concussive force. So even if the tank round itself didn’t penetrate, the force would do serious internal damage to a wearer. I mean it’s not Vibranium after all
@@Dicknballz52 he OFTEN pulls stunts that are many g's. For example in iron man 1, he is supersonic and extremely quickly slows down to where the fighter jets lose him. I think it's pretty safe to say that he has some way of dampening forces. Do remember that he has access to Howard Starks stuff, and he did study vibranium (edit spell check doesn't know what vibranium is). Though it's not stated, I don't find it unreasonable that he has some way to dampen the forces involved with the g's he pulls all the time, and if that were the case, he could probably take the hit from the tank assuming the tank she'll doesn't penetrate his armor, or overloads the dampening.
Rule of thumb, always change your target area by a noticable margin. Once a piece is hit it's compromised so moving your target area will allow us to see what it does against that caliber from the getgo
@@_Chad_ThunderCock Yeah I was very sad when he died too, I actually met him once at a science fiction convention, he was giving a talk in an open stage to a small crowd of maybe 30 to 50 people, but he seemed like a super genuine guy who was really enthusiastic about his work and being on that Star Trek fan remake etc, he died too young.
@@Xalgucennia yeah man... Luckily you managed to meet him. I agree, he definitely seemed like a genuine guy and had lots of enthusiasm for what he does. May Grant Rest In Peace♥️
Adam and Jamie are my childhood heroes, other kids watched cartoon shows, I waited everyday for the Mythbusters. And even my parents eventually joined in too, we made it into a family thing 😂 So happy to see that even after so long, Adam hasn't changed, not one bit. ❤️
You'll need thicker armor which compared to the movies, it would seem that Iron Mans armor is much thicker then what is presented here. Though I suppose if you wanted you could mathematically extrapolate it.
@@StephanBijzitter Only one of the bullets shot was hollow point and it was the first of 2 9mm rounds shot at the steel plate, all other rounds were normal
The 9mm isn't a hollow point. It's an 147 grain FMJ and when come to the 147 grain 9mm they sometimes are call flat nose. The 22 LR is one of those lead round nose so basically range ammo..so umm..do the math...lead and copper aren't strong as iron. OP is right though. Move up the calibers to rifles. I say..move up to green tips.
5.56 NATO rounds would shred through those flimsy titanium plates. A more accurate comparison, given Iron Man was being shot at with rifles in most movies.
that was hilarious. Even if the armor survived it, his insides would've been turned to jelly from the vibrations and the massive G forces from the sudden stop both from the round and when hit the ground.
@@Justyn_Lim_ Iron Man's super power is plot armor and being able to invent literally anything in like 5 minutes by himself. He solves time travel over a cup of coffee and a freeze pop.
@@Aurumk1 🤣🤣🤣 It’s an understandable mistake. But if it can survive 7.62x51 then it can survive the other since it isn’t traveling as fast. Besides I’d take a carbine over a rifle any day.
Interesting, but I wish I knew the gauge differences between the steel plate and the titanium armor they used here. Also, mild steel (I’m assuming that’s what they used for this demonstration) is gonna behave differently than if it were tempered carbon steel. The properties of titanium are significantly lighter than steel, and as far as toughness goes, is basically comparable to carbon steel, with high carbon steel being able to actually reach higher hardness than titanium.
I didn’t say stronger, but steel has generally more mass and weight than titanium does inherently. And regardless of it being stronger or not, the properties of steel being hardened may still react differently than your sheet of titanium.
Not to mention, the actual iron man suit has multiple layers to house all the electronics. If all those layers are made of titanium alloy (reference to Iron Man 1) then definitely that suit will be helluva bulletproof.
@@daxreyna5539 i mean the first Iron man was still somewhat grounded in reality, he was only getting shot with pistols, M4, AK's. i wanna see how that armor handles a tank shell though, lol
@@adamsifford6228 Somewhat late reply, but: It is a real job, but he misspelled it by a single letter. Here's the description of what a metallurgist is according to the first thing I saw on Google: Metallurgists are materials scientists who specialize in metals such as steel, aluminum, iron, and copper. They often work with alloys - metals that are mixed with each other or other elements - to create materials with specific desirable properties.
I always assumed that Tony Stark's built-in Arc reactor also provided a strong magnetic field surrounding each suit of armor to help protect against projectiles, explosions, and directed energy weapons. The Arc reactor is basically unlimited power contained within its core so it wasn't just the suit by itself that helped protect the wearer from harm.
No. Bullets are usually made of lead and lead is not magnetic, thus a magnetic field would not provide any protection against bullets. Ditto for explosions, except for perhaps shrapnel that happened to be magnetic. It might protect against that, but only that. Even then, shrapnel moving at high enough speeds could still get through.
@@Kraykat0 Nah. 30-06. You need full, heavy, plated tac gear to stop a 30-06 solid. If some old guy comes out with a Garand, cops run and call for SWAT immediately (if they are smart).
What I like about the Ironman suits in the movies is that they’re not indestructible and often get damaged or destroyed, making them far more realistic.
@@alanhersch4617 Not that much - he should be JUICE from the impacts the armor gets. I think the comics wave it away with forcefields and inertial dampeners later on.
Nah. The logic in the movies are utter garbage. Imagine an armor that can withstand bullets or rockets or tank shots, but can be beaten with bare hands from captain. He should not even feel those hits while captains hands should be crushed like hitting a wall
@@seigeengine Just the ones supposed to be human-squishy. People are better at including required secondary super powers these days, but certainly not perfect.
Iron man was taking multiple shots from 7.62m and 5.56m. With the complex inner systems working afterwords. While these handguns are neat and fun, they're pretty small fry compared to what Iron Man would've been facing.
Like how medieval armor is rounded to deflect arrows swords and lances from imparting their full force into the wearer. None of those can penetrate the armor, but deflecting them will protect the knight from getting knocked over.
The Iron Man suit is a Titanium/Gold alloy. The Gold, is allegedly supposed to help with impact pressure/damage. Because it is a metal that is soft but retains its solidity when struck. Like squishing gum. It will take different shapes but not come apart. Great, great show & experiment guys. This is why I can't live -- without Mythbusters.
i would be interested to see what it stands up to when the back plate and gorget are attached. those pieces absorb a lot of stress from the breastplate and mitigate the internal stress to the body by both transferring the bulk if the impact around the body and supporting one another (at least with lances and swords)
@@vigneshv3846 Why not add in some strongest wiring and cpu's in the world as well. I mean who cares that many rilfes can break through bulletproof 'strongest in the world glasses'. All we care about is our fantasy right. Lol.
@@a.s.e.r.inc.2009 Interesting / fun video on various 50 cal rounds versus 2 inches of titanium. Search in RU-vid "2 inch Titanium vs 50 Cals Baddest Rounds." You can skip to about the 11 minute mark.
The lead shrapnel in the neck is interesting. When Tod Cutler did an 'arrows vs breastplate' test, they found that arrows would ricochet up toward the neck similarly, and that this is why raised grooves were put on many medieval breastplates: to deflect shrapnel away from the throat and face. Iron Man would likely want some kind of coating on that armor to catch the shrapnel as it shatters.
There is actually late Medieval body armor that has a protective fold downward from the neck, to prevent splinters etc from breaking arrows to slip upwards into your throat. So the problem the Iron Man Suit is having here, has actually been solved hundreds of years ago.
I imagine its part of the reason why when he was using the Mk1 suit, he put the leather scrap around his neck. Either that or he's a big fan of the USMC lol
French Knights during the Battle of Agincourt wore rounded breastplates where the armor was thicker, and had a raised V-notch below the neck to deflect arrows and fragments away from the neck area.
I can't believe this worked THAT well. Cover the armor with a thin layer of padding on the outside and some kevlar on the inside and that person will be VERY well protected.
@@Nicksperiments You mean like a helmet full of metal bits? It would have to cover so tightly to the neck that you couldn't move, to block it. Maybe if they can make some telescoping parts to cover the neck and leave no gaps...
@@court2379 I mean, technically his armor is air tight, since he can use it in space as well as under water. So his neck is covered by something at least.
I do believe the most common coating is the same material as Line-X, which is a somewhat abnormal case of a product designed for the consumer market finding it's way into military.
They should create a whole show where they test things like this. Maybe Adam should team up with someone else. Perhaps someone stoic and quiet to contrast his personality.
AP rounds would defeat the purpose of the armour, which is defeating general use of small arms on the wearer. This test proves that such a thing works, against standard ammo a non-military person would be using regularly/accessing affordably. Even modern militaries do not use full magazines of AP type cartridges, they usually stripe them with ball or tracers.
@@Rexhunterj Well no, the purpose of the Iron Man armor was to protect Tony Stark from all manner of things, least of all bullets. So AP rounds would be one of the smallest tests you could do.
I love how he feels he needs to explain what a ballistic gel dummy is to us. Adam, we're all Mythbusters fans. We all know. Seriously though, I guess there might be some new people who haven't seen it. In which case, they have something like 14 seasons of this stuff to watch and I'm a little jealous of them.
Something to consider with this armor, it isn't forged Titanium, it's 3D printed. It's not made as one solid piece, but printed in layers. If you look closely you can see the layer lines on the closeups. To me, this test is a profound statement for the AM process as well.
SOme question to the one with knowlenge. Is it a : fillament , when yes what kind. What printer is used? Wich episode was this? Was it a powder sintering proces? FDM? Thanks in advance.
In the 3d printing process, titanium powder is melted down as it exits a nozzle (by laser or electron beam) fusing all particles together. Before the advent of 3d printing, CNC machining was the preferred method for aerospace and medical titanium manufacturing. Due to its lack of precision, and titanium not being very malleable, forging never has been used for such applications. (if you were thinking along the lines of forging and knights in armor, Titanium wasn't used in the middle ages for armor, because we weren't even aware of is existence until the 200 years ago, nor had the technology to extract it I'm useable amounts until more modern times. It is also a brittle metal, any attempt at forging titanium armor, if successful, would be very weakened and brittle).
@@jontymalice1336 Look at all the time I saved you... Fair enough...re-labled for spoilers...Can't do anything about the other comments that indicate the outcome.
So a fully forged set with an internal gel cooling/energy absorbing layer, using Kevlar to fill in the gaps and flex areas, it would honestly be incredibly effective because it actually protects more than what normal armor does. plus, since it's solid it would also protect you from other things as well that might normally do damage, say falling or getting hit by something.
This is pretty light armor. If you look at it verse any concepts of iron man you'll notice it's a bit thicker. But in real life we don't have any easy way yet to support that kind of weight. So it's better to use thinner size. I dunno.
Um... what world are you living in that .45 is a small caliber? I mean that's the standard payload for the M16. And yes, of course the velocity is faster in the case of the NATO round, and it would definitely be cool to see them test a NATO round against the armor.
Not surprising. 45ACP has difficulty penetrating warm butter and the 9mm was subsonic, as well. A NATO spec 124gr FMJ would punch it like paper. Practically any rifle round wouldn't even slow down for it. Just look at actual rifle rated armor plates.
I am not, It was a forgone conclusion. 5.56 and 7.62 getting stopped like that would have made quite the statement though. It won't stop that, let alone .50 BMG.
The Iron Man suit's exoskeleton is actually not made of solid titanium, but rather, a gold-titanium alloy in order to "ensure fuselage integrity while maintaining the power-to-weight ratio"
To clarify, the 22 was the only sub-sonic round fired, the armor was made thinner than originally intended, no AP rounds were used. Basically this doesn't really tell us anything about how a completely accurate suit would handle itself. This was really cool though.
Yep…. The most common .45ACP tound is 230gr at 850ft per sec. 9mm would have been the closest to have penetrated. Anything 1500 ft per sec would have blown right though that easy. In fact Liberty Defense 50gr 9mm is doing 2040ft per sec and goes right through level 3 body armor
@@vesta6001 that was 1 inch of solid ar500 steel not even a SLAP 50. or a Tungsten core 20x102 APDS will punch through that... same with the tungsten and titanium he shot. You can put plates like that on top of heavy vehicles but why this wouldnt make sense on a persons chest should go without sayin. So that test vs the plate while interresting to see wasnt really all too practical.
angle of impact plays a huge factor in resistance. Thats why most body armor throughout history has been curved. Id be really interested in seeing him continue this project.
@@romxxii that may be. I just can't imagine spending that many years working so closely with somebody, and not trying to be their friend, unless you had a real distaste for them. Which makes me kinda sad, because I really liked the show, ya know?
LOL they don't get along, not even slightly. Lots of 2 man straight guy/ funny guy combinations in the entertainment industry were the same. Laurel and Hardy really did hate each other passionately IRL, Dean and Jerry ended up never speaking. Even Abbott and Costello didn't get along IRL
So, he would obviously have some kind of Chobham Armor. We would be dealing w/1 of the richest people in the World. He would ABSOLUTELY have the MOST ADVANCED armor possible.
just a slight nitpick but the Iron Man armor is made from Titanium-3. which is a Titanium gold alloy with three parts titanium and one part gold that is 4 time stronger than regular Titanium. moot point really just throwing that out there
A few problems with this. 1. They were using heavy rifle rounds 2. The rounds were hitting in quick succession 3. They also had .50 rifles hitting the armor So no, this was not accurate in the least bit
Also, the actual armor is much, much thicker and stiff so, to actually make a dent you'd have to hit really hard, I'm talking maybe close to breaking point levels of hard.
From what I recall of titanium, it's seriously strong, BUT it is rather brittle compared to other metals, which is why when it's used for armor plating and such it's just one layer of multiple. Usually on the upper layers to reduce the force of impact on the remainder of the armor. It also depends on the grade of titanium as well
@@georgeniculescu with how fast Tony was able to fabricate and assemble the mk2 and mk3 in his basement workshop from a couple of days to mere hours, I honestly think his suits were printed as well. Making this all the more fascinating.
AvE has a great video on titanium vs steel. Titanium has fantastic strength to weight ratio but it's actually quite weak compared to other metals. If you're looking for weight savings but still strength (iron man suit, SR71 blackbird, USS enterprise 1701-E) go for titanium. They don't make main battle tanks out of it for a reason though
The main thing that I always wondered was whether he had any shock absorption of any kind. Even when wearing armor, if you get hit, the force of the hit still hits you, so while Iron Man would be technically protected against bullets, he would still take force of the bullets, especially the tank shot from the first movie.
@@mambojambo4870 lol inertial dampeners are used in sci fi spacecraft as a pseudoscientific way of explaining why massive ships move without immense amounts of inertia, momentum and G forces ripping them apart against their own thrusters and reaction controls.
He probably has a lot of padding and layering but keep in mind that even with generic medieval style plate armor, the stress of impacts is spread out by the structure such that hits that bounce off aren’t carried through with their full force at the point of impact.
