Boron Carbide (B4C) is one of the hardest materials on Earth – only outdone by cubic boron nitride and diamond. Furthermore, its extremely low density makes it perfect for body armor applications. The invention involves composite boron carbide armor capable of stopping high velocity armor-piercing projectiles, consisting of an integral ceramic faceplate with backing means.
Hardness
Boron carbide (B4C) is one of the hardest materials known, second only to diamond and cubic boron nitride. Due to its combination of hardness, low density, corrosion resistance and resistance against high speed projectile impacts it makes an excellent material choice for body armor plates that can withstand high speeds projectile impact.
When a bullet strikes a boron carbide plate at high velocity, its high-speed impact alters its internal structure – shifting it from being in its crystalline state with all atoms arranged systematically into being glass-like in arrangement, thus weakening it and increasing chances for fragmentation when hit again by another bullet – this process is known as “amorphization”, and reduces armor efficiency significantly.
Researchers from Texas A&M University, Rutgers University and Army Research Laboratory have come up with an effective solution to this problem: adding just a tiny amount of silicon to boron carbide increases its ductility – thus making it less brittle and more resilient against high-speed impacts.
The new method involves doping boron carbide with just 1% weight of silicon at a concentration of only one-tenth the previous level, to increase its atomic order at grain boundaries, thus reducing shear bands formed during high-speed impact and improving flavor – similar to adding salt or spices to food for enhanced flavor enhancement.
This technique does not require complex machinery or equipment and provides an inexpensive and simple method for increasing the effectiveness of boron carbide armor. Furthermore, this approach serves as an eco-friendly replacement to more costly titanium and steel used in ballistic armor today.
This new process makes it possible to produce Level IV boron carbide armor that are significantly lighter than their titanium and steel counterparts, offering multiple uses ranging from military aircraft use to protecting law enforcement officers against threats during tactical missions with their sniper shield protection or increasing protection offered by existing body armor vests.
Resistance to Penetration
Boron carbide is well known for its extreme hardness, which enables it to withstand penetration by high-velocity projectiles. Furthermore, its low density makes it suitable for bulletproof vest applications while its lightweight structure helps decrease overall weight for armor applications like bulletproof vests worn or installed into military vehicles.
When a bullet strikes a plate of boron carbide armor, its impact causes it to undergo a phase change that transforms its atoms from their original state into glass-like molecules, leading to planar faults and bands of disorganization on the plate surface, leading to fragmentation and eventual fragmentation and destruction of its integrity.
To prevent phase change in boron carbide, small amounts of silicon must be doped into it in order to preserve its crystalline structure and preserve crystalline form. Unfortunately, due to strong covalent bonding and high strength characteristics of this material, doping it may prove challenging. As an additional measure, predrilled boron carbides are often presintered hot pressing processes – this helps avoid having to drill ceramic armor using extremely hard diamond tools or more disadvantageous cutting processes after completion of pressing process.
The new method for producing boron carbide allows holes to be drilled directly into armor plates before being sintered and cooled, which makes production much less costly than its current process of drilling finished ceramic tiles with diamond tools or using cut processes. Once complete, this drilled boron carbide can then be sintered and cooled as part of its final ceramic armor tile form.
Boron carbide is an ideal material choice for military and law enforcement protection due to its resistance to penetration, high melting point and lightweight characteristics. Furthermore, its chemically inert composition and thermal stability makes it suitable for a variety of protective applications.
Impact Absorption
Boron carbide’s hardness makes boron carbide armor an excellent material for bulletproof armor production, yet its light-weight nature – with an approximate solid density of 2.5 g/cm3 – allows soldiers and vehicles to benefit from exceptional protection without increasing overall weight.
Boron-carbon ceramic is one of the hardest manufactured materials, second only to diamond and cubic boron nitride. This versatile material has many applications across various industries such as wear-resistant materials, abrasives and ceramics – often used as body armor due to its hard surface, resistance to penetration and relatively light weight.
Boron carbide comes in various forms, including reaction bonded, hot-pressed and cold-pressed varieties. Reaction bonded varieties are most often seen used for ballistic armor applications because of its extremely hard surface which reduces wear in rigorous environments and its ability to absorb radiation. Neutron shielding applications also make use of this tough material effectively.
Reaction bonded boron carbide is frequently combined with Kevlar to enhance wearer protection, while cold-pressed boron carbide has superior physical properties and strength-to-weight ratio for use as armor. Moldable into various shapes to meet specific wearer and vehicle requirements.
Boron carbide, like most refractory materials, can be sensitive to impurities. Therefore, reliable methods should be available for detecting and quantifying these unwanted elements before using the material. EAG laboratories offer several solid-state analytical techniques for boron carbide including glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and liquid chromatography with flame photometric detection (LC-FID). Selecting the most applicable method depends on analytes of interest, expected concentration levels, sample morphology.
Weight
Boron carbide is an extremely lightweight material compared to heavier metals such as steel. This makes it an excellent choice for armor plates as it protects against projectiles without adding too much extra weight to your body. Furthermore, its resistance to abrasion and chemical attack makes it resilient enough to withstand repeated impacts from weapons or even gunfire without becoming worn down over time.
Researchers at Texas A&M and its collaborating institutions are working on ways to enhance boron carbide armor bulletproof properties, by adding silicon at very low concentrations into its composition. Silicon alters how its atoms space with each other, increasing strength. They are exploring this technique further and hope that other elements could further boost performance of this material.
Boron carbide ceramics boast high melting points, hardness and density that makes them suitable for bulletproof materials, making boron carbide ceramics highly suitable for bulletproof vests worn by law enforcement officers and soldiers, cockpit seats of armed helicopters as well as in the bulletproof vests worn by law enforcement officials and soldiers. Its excellent qualities have seen its use widely throughout law enforcement forces as well as military organizations around the world.
While boron carbide is hard, it doesn’t compare to cubic boron nitride in terms of hardness. Even so, boron carbide makes an effective material for armor plates due to its resistance against ball threats. Plus it’s more affordable than many other ballistic materials available – making boron carbide an attractive choice when choosing body armor materials.
Boron carbide and UHMWPE is an extremely powerful armor combination, offering the best of both worlds in terms of ballistic protection. This level III+ plate offers top-of-the-line protection while still being light and comfortable – it meets NIJ RF3 standards and can stop all but the most advanced rifle threats, such as 5.56×45 M855 (Green Tip). For those searching for top protection while remaining light and comfortable this level III+ plate may be perfect.