Why steel bulletproof plates have many advantages and will be replaced by cerami

Posted by sere on March 16th, 2020

The metal armor was applied very early, and people in the Shang Dynasty began to use bronze helmets a thousand years ago. The armor with iron as the main material is the longest-lived and widely used armor in Chinese history.

After entering the hot weapon era, metal materials are still the main materials for making armor. With the advancement of metal materials science and metallurgical technology, metal bulletproof products still have a strong presence on bulletproof products.

Metal bulletproof materials are mainly steel and titanium alloys.

The biggest characteristic of steel plate comes from metal ductility. The steel plate can be easily made into various shapes, various curvatures and various sizes, which can fit the body as much as possible, improving comfort and mobility without affecting its bulletproof properties.

Of course it is okay to make it like this

The steel plate can achieve full attribute protection. In addition to the hot weapon, the steel plate has a very good protection effect on the cold weapon's chopping, puncture, cutting, and blunt weapon strike.

The service life of steel plates is particularly long. Unlike textile materials or ceramics, which have a service life of more than ten years to several years, the life of a steel plate can be very long. If it is well kept, there is no problem in heirloom.

Of course, the most incomparable advantage of steel plate is still cheap

Common steel bulletproof version

Thanks to the production of steel super English Premier League, the price of steel plate has been completely cabbage. But titanium is still expensive.

How about cabbage?

With the same NIJ III protection level, the price of an AR500 steel independent bulletproof insert (rubber wrap) is about $ 150, which is nearly a quarter of the price of a ProTech ceramic board of the same grade.

Ceramic plate price

So why are there so many steel plate bulletproof plates, and now the common bulletproof plates are mainly ceramic plates?

Nothing is perfect, neither is steel. First of all, the steel plate is dense and very heavy. If you want to make NIJ IV protection, the thickness of the steel plate will be very heavy, so there is basically no NIJ IV steel plate on the market. The ceramic bulletproof plate has achieved NIJ level 5 protection, even level 6. The steel plate can only achieve NIJ level 3 protection, which can only prevent pistol bullets, not rifle bullets.

During the invasion of Afghanistan in the former Soviet Union, it had been proposed that the body armor should be able to protect the AK-74 rifle from close range. However, there were technical shortcomings in the aramid and ceramics of the Soviet era that could not keep up with the United States. The use of steel plates can not meet the demand, and titanium alloys are just good at the field, so they can only use other stones to attack jade, and have made titanium alloy body armor.

Of course, the cost and weight are very high. Take 6B4 as an example: there are 16 ceramic bulletproof plates before and after 6B4-01, with a total weight of 10.5KG, while the improved 6B4-p has 20 ceramic plates before and after, weighing 12.2KG. By 6B4-C, there were 30 pieces in the front and 26 pieces in the back, and the total weight reached 16.5KG. Still not comparable to the price and performance of ceramic bulletproof plates.

In addition to weight, steel plate defense has a certain probability of bouncing and fragmentation, which poses a major hidden danger to user safety. Therefore, the elastic surface of the steel plates produced by AR500 company is covered with a thick layer of synthetic ballistic adhesive called PAXCON, which is used to increase adhesion and absorb secondary damage such as broken armor and lead core.

The steel products on the market today are mainly used as the core reinforcement of soft body armor and SAPI-like boards like AR500. Traditional square boards and other shapes are also available.

The name AR500 is actually a steel label

In addition, metal materials are more susceptible to rust in humid environments than ceramic materials. Of course, this is avoided by sealing and maintenance outside the bulletproof version. However, this is also a disguised increase in cost, which is also a burden for the lack of training and the low level of knowledge of the army.