COMPOSITE ARMOR AND METHOD FOR MAKING COMPOSITE ARMOR
First Claim
1. A composite armor panel comprising, one or more ceramic tiles having tile faces and tile edges, a layer of a permeable medium substantially covering the ceramic tile faces and a hyperelastic polymer permeating the permeable medium, bonded to the tile faces and substantially encapsulating the tiles;
- wherein the hyperelastic polymer adheres the one or more ceramic tiles to a back plate on one side of the tiles, and a front plate on the opposite side of the one or more ceramic tiles.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A composite armor panel and a method for making the armor is disclosed. In one embodiment the armor consists of a plurality of ceramic tiles (21) individually edge-wrapped with fiber or edge-wrap fabric (52), which are further wrapped with a face-wrap fabric (53A,53B), and encapsulated in a hyperelastic polymer material (31) permeating the fabric and fibers, with a front plate (42) and back plate (41) adhered to the encapsulated tiles. In one embodiment the hyperelastic polymer is formed from a MDI-polyester or polyether prepolymer, at lease one long-chain polyester polyol comprising ethylene/butylene adipate diol, at least one short-chain diol comprising 1,4-butanediol, and a tin-based catalyst.
42 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A composite armor panel comprising, one or more ceramic tiles having tile faces and tile edges, a layer of a permeable medium substantially covering the ceramic tile faces and a hyperelastic polymer permeating the permeable medium, bonded to the tile faces and substantially encapsulating the tiles;
wherein the hyperelastic polymer adheres the one or more ceramic tiles to a back plate on one side of the tiles, and a front plate on the opposite side of the one or more ceramic tiles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of making a composite armor panel comprising, substantially covering one or more ceramic tiles with a layer of a permeable medium, and substantially encapsulating the tiles and permeable medium in a hyperelastic polymer which permeates the permeable medium and bonds to the ceramic tiles;
- wherein the hyperelastic polymer adheres the one or more ceramic tiles to a back plate on one side of the tiles, and a front plate on the opposite side of the one or more ceramic tiles.
- View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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32. A method of making a composite armor panel comprising:
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(A) providing an array of ceramic tiles having substantially parallel tile faces, (B) substantially covering the faces of the ceramic tiles with a layer of a permeable medium, (C) applying a back plate to one side of the ceramic tile faces in contact with at least a portion of the permeable medium, (C) infiltrating the permeable medium with a liquid polymer so as to substantially encapsulate the ceramic tile and the back plate, (D) applying a front plate to the ceramic tiles on the side opposite the back plate, (E) curing the liquid polymer into a hyperelastic, energy-absorbing material and bonding it to the ceramic tiles and the backing plate, wherein the liquid polymer and the curing are chosen such that the hyperelastic, energy-absorbing material behaves in a rate-independent hyperelastic manner wherein its permanent set is minimized and so that the energy-absorbing material maintains consistent force-displacement characteristics over a wide range of impact velocities while remaining fully recoverable. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
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Specification