Nano Armor

Originally posted by Low Orbit
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Planes made out of Nanotechnology? Why, that would only make sense for insane fighter jets, the aurora, and flying saucers?

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Huh? If there is a way to produce strong nanotech materials for a reasonable price then they of course should be used whereever possible. Imagine a plane fuselage weighing half as much as now... hell, even a 5% decrease of weight could justify the costs over a lifecycle.

Originally posted by Ox
Oh yeah and it looks OH so comfy to be worn on the battlefield for days.. and.. so flexible... So much fun.. Wrong..

Ask any soldier if they would rather be comfortable or protected and see what the answer is. If this stuff lives up to its billing I can see it being used other places besides in body armour. How about helicopter and airplane fuselages, vehicle bodies and boat hulls to name a few.

One of the main problems I see with developing it is what do you put between the nano armour and the soldier's body? THe armour will prevent penetration but the force is still going to be transferred to the soldier's body. If you cover your hand with a steel plate and then strike the plate with a hammer you are still going to have a sore hand. The plate protects your hand from the hammer, but the force of the blow is transmitted to the plate and then to your hand.

Originally posted by JIMC5499

Originally posted by Ox
Oh yeah and it looks OH so comfy to be worn on the battlefield for days.. and.. so flexible... So much fun.. Wrong..

Ask any soldier if they would rather be comfortable or protected and see what the answer is. If this stuff lives up to its billing I can see it being used other places besides in body armour. How about helicopter and airplane fuselages, vehicle bodies and boat hulls to name a few.

One of the main problems I see with developing it is what do you put between the nano armour and the soldier's body? THe armour will prevent penetration but the force is still going to be transferred to the soldier's body. If you cover your hand with a steel plate and then strike the plate with a hammer you are still going to have a sore hand. The plate protects your hand from the hammer, but the force of the blow is transmitted to the plate and then to your hand.

I do agree with you but here is a peace of the article that I posted:
"One of the most interesting new IF properties discovered by ApNano is its extremely high degree of shock absorbing ability. Shock absorbing materials are commonly used in impact resistant applications such as ballistic protection personal body armor, bullet proof vests, vehicle armor, shields, helmets, and protective enclosures. The new Tungsten based IF material has up to twice the strength of the best impact resistant materials currently used in protective armor applications such as boron carbide and silicon carbide, and are over 5 times stronger than steel. It is also possible to combine IF with other substances in order to expand their range of capabilities. For instance, mixing IF with highly elastic materials can lead to new compounds which are both flexible and shock-absorbing. These properties position IF materials as one of the best candidates for future protective gear and armor"

Amazing that if they can do this that it would save thousands of lives. Also on the structure hulls for boats, planes, or even body armor they have developed along with the nano armor a nano lubericant. This lubericant is metal bound meaning that the parts to tanks, boat, planes..etc don't have to be machined. The compound combinds with the metal on a extremely moicule level. The point on mentioning this is that if they can put this on boat hulls for instance there would be no friction between the water and hull making the boat faster. This can also be with planes...etc.

since there is less friction on the surfaces it also means that a fighter jet/attack sub will be able to dogfight/attack better, i.e.. take sharper turns, fly faster then they could before?

Could this nanotech be what is causing the cloud to form around the b2?

www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com...

While I have heard it explained as a b2 breaking the sound barrier I still have my questions about it.

My question is could this nanotech material that seems to cut through air/water like a hot knife through butter be responsible for creating this air pocket in which the b2 flies? Could this be another form of stealth?


[edit on 10-5-2006 by Low Orbit]

Originally posted by Low Orbit
Could this nanotech be what is causing the cloud to form around the b2?
While I have heard it explained as a b2 breaking the sound barrier I still have my questions about it.
[edit on 10-5-2006 by Low Orbit]

I'm not sure about the validity of that picture. I recall reading somewhere that the picture was a composite of two photos. I may be wrong. If the picture is real the cluod is caused by a difference in air pressure. An aircraft is able to fly because its wing creates an area of low pressure above it. When moisture laden air is subjected to a pressure drop it can no longer hold as much moisture so the excess moisture talkes the form of water vapor. It is this vapor that forms the cloud. While this cloud is generally associated with supersonic speeds, it can be formed at other times when the right series of conditions occur.

there are several pics online of the phenomena thats what peeked my interest.

Also, if Im not mistaken that this low pressure bubble could potentially work like nanotech materials in the fact that it lowers the friction between the plane and the forward moving wind, so it could also increase its performance? Does that sound about right?

www.bugimus.com...

www.only1egg-productions.org...

I think the greatest obvious advantage of this new technology is in armored vehicle protection - even light APCs will potentially be able to withstand current MBT guns like on the Abrams and T-90, at least at extended ranges.

If it can successfully be incorporated into laminate armor (like Chobham) then the resulting tank would be almost impervious to current generation lightweight (120mm fired) kinetic energy weapons (APFSDS etc). The notional Merkava-5 would therefore be the best armored tank around.

The knock-on effect would be a change in MBT armament, either to larger (140-155mm) guns, perhaps with Electro-thermal-chemical fired guns, or completely to the ATGW route.

I do wonder how a tank would stand up to a 500~1000lb solid bomb falling at terminal velocity though. even if it didn't penetrate, surely it'd destroy the suspension and give the crew the world's worst headache?

[edit on 10-5-2006 by planeman]

Low Orbit.. Those pics you posted look like the aircraft is breaking the sound barrier.. That's the same effect that you get when a plane "passes through the sound barrier" so to speak

Hypothetically speaking would this work?

If the armor is extremely tuff and you put the lubricant on the outside of even the tank or armor vest would the projectile "slide" off of it. The reason for thinking this is because most projectiles are coned shaped, which in turn, if you have a slippery surface that projectile would hit then slide to a different directions.


[edit on 10-5-2006 by texmiller]

Perhaps this armor would speed along the advance of laser weapons? After all if you can no longer penetrate armor with projectile weapons, would not energy weapons be the next step? No ammo clips or belts to hold and reload. Simply choose the yield and fire.

I would say we should at least begin coating the oil pipeliens in that region, particularly Iraq, with this stuff so as to avoid continuous sabotage by rebel factions. Also is this company trading publicly on any kind of exchange or is it priveately held? I would consider investing in it myself.

The corpprate office is located in New York, and reading through the product descriptions on thei website, it would seem to me that perhaps our American companies which have been manufacturing satellites and space vessels have probably been using their nano-lubricants for quite some time. After all we share such a wonderufl relationship with Israel, it may very well be the reason why our equipment is dominant around the globe and space. The reason we have not heard of it before is because this is just simply a step in the commercial and manufacturing process. We order it from their company, the technology is incorporated into our equipment, the equipment is further used to continue the enhanced protection of the origin nation, as well as the dominance of our own.

I am sure if the order forms and invoices of the many aerospace companies could be made public, we would see alot of this companies products making its way into our equipment.

So I guess don't concentrate on it too much people. Once it is actually developed to the point of applicable use, this nano-armor will make its way into the American inventory anyways during the simple process of business. I am just curious who is going to be working on the weapons to destroy it. After all their are larger nations out there who, if they cannot get the armor yet, they will make the weapons to counter the threat.

I wonder what kind of blunt force trauma you'd be dealing with if you got shot wearing that.

One of the tests of ballistics armor is blunt trauma as the vest impacts the person who just got shot...

It seems to me that something this hard rigid and stiff would kill someone if they wore it and got shot with it on. Regardless of if the bullet penetrates or not you're probably going to break every one of their ribs at minimum.

Not as much as you would think, the material is very bouncy.

The thing about that material is that it doesn't look comfortable. The suits the military wears are extremely heavy and VERy hot. A big peice of metal would be good, but unless it's easy to move around in, and can be easily produced, then the military will be interested.

Originally posted by tsensel

I wonder what kind of blunt force trauma you'd be dealing with if you got shot wearing that.

One of the tests of ballistics armor is blunt trauma as the vest impacts the person who just got shot...

It seems to me that something this hard rigid and stiff would kill someone if they wore it and got shot with it on. Regardless of if the bullet penetrates or not you're probably going to break every one of their ribs at minimum.

I already referanced this in my above post. Read the website it will answer your question on shock to the body.

The armor itself is a shock absorber, according to what I've read so far on this thread. The problem with armor, traditionally, is that it does transfer a lot of the force from blows to the wearer. Helmet or no, one good shot with a warhammer and you're in skull fracture land.

What they're trying to do is turn that energy from the blow (or bullet, or blast, or whatever) to some useful purpose, like hardening the outer layer to resist penetration.

Traditional technologies accomplished this with layers of materials with different properties (plate over chain over leather over padding) - this same principle of layering can be accomplished on a molecular level, and that's just what these folks are trying to do.

That's the idea behind the armor, the very thing people are mentioning as a detraction.

If it works as it says, it's good.

Re: Laser weapons, I think the material would resist lasers admirably, considering it's supposed to stand up to high energy penetrators like bullets. Lasers in their current state are more useful for damaging sensitive electronics and optics (and eyes!).

Wouldn't highly reflective surfaces also present a problem for a laser?

Best way to defeat armor like this, I would think, is in kind. Nano-weapons, maybe nibblers, or something more exotic. Pull it apart the same way the designers put it together.

Originally posted by enthuziazm
The thing about that material is that it doesn't look comfortable. The suits the military wears are extremely heavy and VERy hot. A big peice of metal would be good, but unless it's easy to move around in, and can be easily produced, then the military will be interested.

This has also been addressed, what would you pick over. Saving your life or comfort?
I think I would pick save my life. Plus, if you READ THE SITE more it is made out of a light carbon molecules.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
The armor itself is a shock absorber, according to what I've read so far on this thread. The problem with armor, traditionally, is that it does transfer a lot of the force from blows to the wearer. Helmet or no, one good shot with a warhammer and you're in skull fracture land.

What they're trying to do is turn that energy from the blow (or bullet, or blast, or whatever) to some useful purpose, like hardening the outer layer to resist penetration.

Traditional technologies accomplished this with layers of materials with different properties (plate over chain over leather over padding) - this same principle of layering can be accomplished on a molecular level, and that's just what these folks are trying to do.

That's the idea behind the armor, the very thing people are mentioning as a detraction.

If it works as it says, it's good.

Re: Laser weapons, I think the material would resist lasers admirably, considering it's supposed to stand up to high energy penetrators like bullets. Lasers in their current state are more useful for damaging sensitive electronics and optics (and eyes!).

Wouldn't highly reflective surfaces also present a problem for a laser?

Best way to defeat armor like this, I would think, is in kind. Nano-weapons, maybe nibblers, or something more exotic. Pull it apart the same way the designers put it together.

Thank you for actually reading the thread or even the website.

I can understand that the "look" of it is shinny but that is just the prototype.

But think of it this way: If this armor is what it is and its a great thing coming what about armoring up with this body armor and then applying this.....CLICK HERE.

[edit on 10-5-2006 by texmiller]

If it is so inflexible as to be difficult to move around in, then it could be molded into small, modular scales, with the scales sewn onto a fabric base.

Sorry, just going with the classical/medieval imagery.

Can't wait to see the countermeasures, though.

howabout nanobullets?

or, if the stuff is "bouncy," how about a sonic weapon that sets up a sonic standing-wave that vibrates the armor until it "bounces itself to pieces. . . ."

I don't know about nano-bullets, I'm thinking they might be easier to deploy with 25mm shells, or the like. I'm sure they'd function as small arms rounds, but I'm thinking they'd be impractical, the area of effect could be too limited to have much use. Then again, if you're in an urban area, you probably don't want to spray nibblers everywhere, unless they're incredibly discerning, and only go after the substances and the particular targets you want them to go after.

I get the feeling we'll see these deployed as indiscriminate weapons long before we see them deployed as smart weapons.

Another idea that might be interesting would be using this armor as a sub-cutaneous implant, to shield the organs from injury. You could even sandwich a layer of flesh-repairing nanos in between two armor plates, so if a round penetrated the outer layer, it would release a suture solution into the wound area.

If you were doubly unlucky, and took a round through both plates, you have a rush of suture solution entering the wound area immediately in the wake of the penetrator, which would (maybe?) prevent sepsis and shock. At least keep you sealed up long enough to get to a doctor.

Kind of like tire sealant.

Pretty cool eh? Same kind of theory as the self-repairing carbon nanotubes, the ones with carbon healing goo sandwiched in layers, so that the inevitable stress fractures are rendered self-repairing.