Conformal Ceramic Composite Armor System (CCCAS)

This thread will contain the full public disclosure of a new type of armor my company is developing. It is for information purposes only and all of the usual disclaimers will apply. I will add another page as I get them ready for publication. Enjoy the thread and be sure to subscribe to the thread so you will be aware of new pages being added. When it is completed this thread will contain all required data for replication of the system.

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Present ceramic armor systems for vehicle and personnel protection rely on elements of Aramid fiber backed hot pressed boron carbide ceramics. While these offer excellent ballistic protection against a variety of munitions and ordnance they are not able to conform to a vehicle body, floor, and roof panels. They are most commonly pressed and formed into basic shapes and placed under seats where they offer protection of the vital organs of a driver or passenger in the vehicle from IEDs that might be buried in roadways as has become common in Iraq. These panels commonly leave the legs of the vehicle occupants unprotected. This has resulted in a high likelihood that our service members will survive a road laid IED only to be left without their legs and unable to continue to function in combat.

Full vehicle ceramic armor systems have to date been very expensive and require that they are designed into the vehicle from the start and are not offered as a conformal retrofit system in existing vehicles. This system disclosed in this short paper should change this scenario. The conformal ceramic composite armor system herein described will offer our forces significant protection for an installed cost of about $100 per square foot of protection in a system with a total thickness of only 3/4” and an added weight factor of only 10 lbs. per square foot. The cost estimate is based on a contract of no less than 50 vehicles in order to achieve that economy of scale. A single prototype will cost $250 per square foot of armor coverage. Greater armor protection can be achieved with greater thickness of course and the cost metric will remain the same as the above estimate per added ¾” of armor system applied to the vehicle.

The ballistic penetrator stopping power is estimated and will vary from unit to unit slightly but the basic armor system applied at a total of ¾” composite system should be equivalent to ½” thickness of rolled homogeneous steel and at 25% of the weight of the steel. Where the system truly exceeds that of the steel armor is in its ability to defeat (HEAT) High Explosive Anti-Tank munitions. These are a type of shape charge with a copper core. When the shape charge is detonated the force of the explosive is centered on the copper core of the device turning it into a thin spike of molten metal. This explosively driven liquid copper metal then liquefies the steel armor and punches right through it like the proverbial hot knife through butter. The CCCAS has a melting point that is nearly twice that of steel. It is also a far poorer thermal conductor than steel. The CCCAS is composed largely of Boron Carbide which is nearly as hard as diamond.

The CCCAS will adhere well to bare prepared steel of the vehicle panels. The surface is prepared for bonding much as it would be for other coating systems. The steel panel is cleaned with a sand blaster to remove the factory finish and to pit the surface to improve adhesion of the armor system. It is then cleaned with a degreaser and tacked off by an installer who is wearing Nitril® gloves to prevent oils from the skin from affecting the bonding of the armor system. The system is applied both inside of the vehicle and out. The outside part being the thinnest and is primarily installed to defend the steel skin of the vehicle panels.

The materials used in the CCCAS system and their method of layering will be described on the following pages of this paper. Suppliers for each of the materials will also be disclosed. The purpose of this paper is to allow anyone that reads it with the materials and the basic skills required to upgrade their existing vehicles to a minimum armor protection equivalent to a threat level 4 protective system. No warranty is expressed or implied unless my company is performing the installation. A sample of the CCCAS may be supplied to the military for testing in the standard 1 square foot by ¾” flat stock at a cost of $500 prepaid and allowing for 45 days for assembly and full curing.

Does it stop Jaffa staff weapons?

If so, I'm sold

reply to post by midnightbrigade


If you supply us with one of these weapons we will test it on our armor system and report back our findings.

reply to post by UFOTECH


Heh, got mine confiscated when I tried to exit Cheyenne Mountain. Imma try to get another one soon

Seriously though...I got this subscribed...I'd like to hear more.

How does the CCCAS work?

Before we get into how the armor system is applied I will detail more information on how it works and what the components of the system are. The research that went into this is considerable and the physics of the system is complex but straight forward and fairly easy to comprehend if you have some background in kinetics and specifically ballistics.

As are the currently fielded hot pressed boron carbide ceramic armor systems are our system uses a reinforced Aramid fiber backing. In most of the current hot pressed boron carbide ceramic armor they use a nylon facing. Our system uses the highest strength epoxy resin with a backing of Aramid fiber cloth but our facing system is composed of a blend of carbon fiber and Aramid fiber cloth and high strength epoxy. The ceramic material is fully enclosed in this way in very high burst strength materials.

We do not of course hot press our ceramic material as this would not be possible in a conformal coating. Instead to achieve adequate strength we instead use 2 distinct internal fiber reinforcement systems to add cracking resistance strength to the hard brittle ceramics. The first system is in the ceramic material itself. These internal fibers are situated in the matrix of the ceramic and are randomly disposed within it. A similar type of fiber system is used in high strength concrete systems and this type of technology is adapted to the ceramic as add mixtures.

The second internal reinforcing system is composed of CT-550 epoxy resin coated carbon fiber reinforcing grid. This material is similar to a square wire mesh but it lays much flatter and has 3 times the strength of welded steel construction cloth at 10% of the weight of the steel cloth. The resin that is used in the carbon fiber grid material has high styrene content. Our ceramic mixture has a chemical modifier add mixture that creates a strong chemical bond to this type of resin. These 2 systems work together to provide increased lateral burst resistance which stops penetrators of all sorts from shattering the ceramic matrix.

The ceramic mixture is our own proprietary formulation. It is mostly composed of a nuclear grade cubic boron carbide grain that is an average of 50 micron in size. For those who are not familiar with boron carbide it should be noted that nuclear grade is a grade of material that is at least 78% boron with a low percentage of incidental graphite. This grade is chosen both for strength and for its ability to stop and absorb fast or slow thermal neutrons. Vehicles with our armor system have very good neutron stopping ability as a result. While this is not that important for civilian or police applications it can be important in military vehicles.

Neutron bombs are believed to be in the possession of the North Koreans. This armor system will provide significantly increased neutron shielding to the passengers and their equipment. In the case of a neutron bomb attack if the vehicle occupants are outside of any detonation blast wave they will likely be able to continue to function while occupants of unprotected vehicles are killed almost instantly from a deadly hail of fast thermal neutrons.
The other feature of boron carbide is its very high melting point of about 3000c. It is also a poor thermal conductor so explosively driven molten metal penetration from anti-tank rockets and improved road buried IEDs will be defeated. The ceramic binders in our system are also designed for very high heat resistance and are currently used in fireproofing applications to protect steel and wood structures when applied as a top coat.

This ceramic binder material we use in our system is a room temperature setting magnesium phosphate type. In our system no elements that are heat sensitive are exposed. The final coating over each element is our boron carbide filled ceramic matrix. This defends any steel or fiber and resin sub system from thermal degradation. In the follow on page we will disclose the layering system.

How the CCCAS is layers onto a vehicle.

In this embodiment of the disclosed armor system the object of the layering is to encase the main body of the very hard but brittle and very heat resistant ceramic materials so that they can survive multiple impact incidents. The internal bonding within the ceramic matrix will first be explained further. There exist in our proprietary ceramic armor formulation 2 distinct fiber add mixtures. The first is a high breaking strength e-glass.

This material has one small flaw in that if the burst strength is exceeded by a very high velocity armor piercer or it experiences a concussion velocity beyond its burst strength it will rupture and allow a crack line to form in the ceramic matrix. For this reason the second type of fiber is also added. This second fiber component is more elastic. These fibers are of a strong but more elastic polymer. Both of the fiber types are micro-coated with a styrene monomer to provide for a strong chemical bond with the ceramic elements. The internal material of the more flexible polymer is composed of (HDPE) high density polyethylene.

Without the styrene monomer micro-coating these fibers would have poor adhesion to the ceramic elements. The layering process begins under the vehicle. The steel is prepared as described already. The steel surface is first wetted with the high strength epoxy resin with a setting time modified to allow for the wetted fiber layer to be applied. This material is applied using a silicon roller system to cause the material to conform to the steel undercarriage. When this layer is fully cured and dried it receives a thin top coat of the ceramic material in a workable paste consistency.

The ceramic system is always mixed and applied in small batches. The mixer and the applier are a team and they must work quickly and efficiently together and this can only come with practice. The ceramic is very exothermic. The mix should always be started with the coldest water available to increase both mixing time and working time. The average time from mix to application to setting is less than 12 minutes. Detailed mixing instructions are included with the purchase of the ceramic armor system from us. They have to be followed exactly or the ceramic will not have near the final strength required to defeat high velocity explosives and armor penetrator rounds.

Once the thin layer of ceramic covering the fiber and resin layer has set up a fine e-glass scrim is applied. This is also rolled on to cause it to adhere to the surface. Then another thin layer of the ceramic is applied to provide a total of ¼” of reinforced ceramic to the outside of the fiber and resin first coat. This is left bare for about 10 days and the interior is worked on during that curing and thorough drying time. The order of layering internally in the vehicle is in a different order. The first layer this time is the ceramic material directly applied to the prepared steel. This material is allowed to cure and dry for at least 10 days and during this time the exterior armored surfaces are given a coating of rubberized undercoat. These are commercially available in stock colors of black, olive drab and kaki.

Other camouflage colors and patterns can be added where required. This provides resistance to low velocity impacts from road detritus and protects the more brittle ceramic layer. Once the initial internal ceramic layer is fully cured the rest of the system is applied. It receives a layer of fiber and resin first and then the main body of ceramic which is layered with ¼” of ceramic liquid then the CT-550 carbon fiber and resin reinforcing grid and then another ¼” of liquid ceramic. With each ceramic layer the vehicle is vibrated to cause any air bubbles formed in the ceramic to raise to the surface.

This is important to prevent even the smallest voids from being left in the bulk ceramic layer which would reduce the overall strength and stopping power of the system. When this layer is fully cured and dried it is given a final top coat of the carbon fiber and Aramid fiber blend wetted with a strong epoxy resin system. This surface when cured is also provided with a final coat of a rubberized coating in order to provide shock absorption and abrasion resistance.

The next page will be the final one in this thread and will include the supplier contacts for the armor system elements.

spelling errors edited.

[edit on 6/26/2009 by UFOTECH]

Here we list the material suppliers for the CCCAS.

Carbon Kevlar fiber blend cloth
More expensive on average but they always have it in stock.
www.jamestowndistributors.com...!6457&keyword=carbon_kevlar_cloth

Some ebay dealers of the material
stores.shop.ebay.com...
motors.shop.ebay.com...
stores.shop.ebay.com...

Both the CT-550 carbon fiber grid and the e-glass scrim are supplied exclusively from Choramat.
www.techfabllc.com...

The ceramic material is composed of products from several sources. The ceramic binder material is produced in the US by Grancrete Inc. As the base of our ultimate material we use their PCW-G product that is designed to provide one of the internal fiber systems, chemical modifiers, and alone produces a compressive strength of over 11kPSI without additional reinforcement.
www.grancrete.net...

Their new PCW-G product is not listed. It was designed for our type of use and is more expensive than their other products because of the add mixtures.

Boron Carbide powders are available from a number of suppliers.
www.ukabrasives.com...
sandblastingabrasives.com...

For a premixed and proven ceramic material in bulk dry powder form ready for mixing with complete proven instructions for mixing and application along with phone consultation for application please send me a private email message for details on ordering some from us directly. For a sample of the finished material in 1 square foot by ¾” flat plate form the same instruction s supply.

Well everyone knows now that has read this short paper just what goes into our conformal ceramic composite armor system. The exact process quality is one that improves with the doing of it as with anything else that requires some skill I suppose. The careful application of this system should improve any vehicle occupant survival rate on whatever vehicle it is used. Of course it is always in the one area that you did not protect that ends up being the blind spot in the end but I hope this paper helps our troops whether we end up with a contract to provide the armor system or not.

Additional notes on the conformal ceramic composite armor system.

The ceramic material is self leveling. It is important that the level not be below the minimums discussed in this paper. A pin with a mark on it can be pushed into the ceramic matrix while it is still workable. The ceramic material can be sprayed or applied with a trowel. Most people with experience working with plasters are suited for this task as far as applicable experience. Some experience with hand laid up fiberglass or carbon fiber is important as well to produce a strong armor system.

If you use spray equipment you should first run some WD-40 through the sprayer. Mud guns work well. I suggest a cheap Chinese imported texture gun that you do not mind losing. If you spray for more than the 10 minutes of working time you are going to have a seriously clogged gun with no possible way to clean it.

I would like to know how well your armor does against a weapon with alot of punch behind it such as the ak-47 and if it can hold its own against teflon coated ammunition. Also have you tested it for taking repeated hits from a variety of small and large calibers?

reply to post by T_Clem


The design for the armor system is based on proven technology and we simply adapted it for a conformal coating application so we started from good data from existing systems.

It has undergone some successful testing in house with 9mm pistol munitions and we have fired 7.62 AP NATO steel core rounds with full metal jacket against it and a sample was recently sent off for testing against larger caliber weapons than we had on hand. I will be posting some videos soon of the testing. At 3/4" it will stop at least the 7.62 rounds. There was so little damage it was hard to see where it had been hit. The boron carbide is so hard of a material that it deforms steel, copper and lead right on the surface with no significant cracking.

It is similar to the ceramic formula used in dragon skin armor and the Ceradyne ballistic boron carbide hot pressed plates currently used by US forces.

We have filed a provisional patent on the system. That is about all I have to report on it for the moment. More updates will be posted here when we have more ready for public release. Check back with this thread to get links to the videos as they become available. We are waiting until the provisional patent receives a publication number before we release any videos.

Thanks for the hard work!!! Sounds like a great system. The ability to conform will be a much needed improvement to existing armor kits on tactilcal vehicles. Lost to many good people to EFPs. You and your company are taking leaps in the right direction

reply to post by Tank2/8


I have been out of the Army for decades but I really started working on a solution for these road side bombs and the improved RPGs that is in use now days when I started seeing the casualties mounting. The economy slowing down also slowed our ability to put research money into this and we also learned real quick that the military contractors that are close to the previous administration will block our access to getting our system a fair test.

War is a racket as Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler says and he is certainly correct in his assessment. We wasted a lot of our time and money trying to get our system field tested. We finally talked to some soldiers that had access to weapons and started taking it for a test drive. This confirmed our expectations and we went ahead and pursued the development with funds from our own pockets. We received no government funds and no interest from the DOD to test the system in the early stages.

When we get the heavy munition testing completed and have our provisional patent process completed we are hoping it is a different story.

Sounds great and I'm interested in seeing the testing videos. Not disrespect and I'm not doubting you but seeing is believing. Sounds like a very well thought out armor system and I hope its very successful. I've heard of the dragon skin armor system and I've seen videos of it but the problem with it I believe was its inability to perform in extreme conditions so that's another aspect maybe you could clear up on is its performance in less than hospitable conditions. Anyways good luck and if things go well hopefully ya'll can get it to the troops rather quickly!

reply to post by T_Clem


The problem with dragon skin was the same as many vendors. They were not close friends and buddies with the administration. They did not pay their dues so to speak (see payoffs). Their product is in many ways superior and more well liked by the personnel who have used it. The Ceradyne armor plates are fielded and so are a few others of the ceramic plates. I know there is a product made in Israel that is also very popular because of price.

All of these are body armor not vehicle armor or conformal armor so they are not a real comparison. We just used the science behind those on our development of our conformal system. Were we diverge significantly from either system is in the layering and the way it is thought out.

In our system the first layer that is outfacing is a rubberized coating covered 1/4" reinforced ceramic facing covering a layer of 7 ounce Aramid fiber cloth and epoxy. Underneath that is the vehicle's steel skin. This is a sacrificial layer. Then inside the vehicle there is normally a void where the unibody panels have some folded space. This void is commonly an inch or more. Then another thin piece of steel of the body panel, and then our main body of our system which starts with a layer of reinforced ceramic, then another layer of epoxy soaked ballistic cloth and then the main body of carbon fiber and resin grid reinforcing system and boron carbide ceramic with its internal fiber reinforcement and then another layer of ballistic cloth this time the carbon fiber and aramid fiber blend material and a strong epoxy.

The reason this is so much stronger than any other system is that it has this outside layer and inside there is a void. This is the tricky part. The outside thin armor layer causes any penatrator to begin deforming and the external layer of body panel steel deforms into the void trapping the energy of the round or blast long enough to absorb a great deal of its energy.

By the time any explosive force or armor piercing round gets to the thicker harder interior layer it has lost significant energy and has also been blunted which spreads its kinetic energy out over a larger spot on the internal layer.

As you say and I certainly agree the proof is in the show. I just thought I would give the description of the kinetics of the system a bit more of an explanation. I look forward to being able to release the videos soon.

[edit on 6/28/2009 by UFOTECH]

WOW.

Your sir are a PIMP! You have no idea how much of a hero you are to me right now!


I have a donor vehicle and I am in the planning stages of my own armoured car construction and I am very greatful for this information.
I really did not want to go steel!


Question: Like traditional armor, does the composite give you sloped armor benefits? If so how much and what degree of slope? My goal is to stop a 20mm to vehicle vitals and be IED proof as possible to the crew compartment.

TY TY TY TY TY! Im giving you a star for every post!



[edit on 28-6-2009 by bismarcksea]

reply to post by bismarcksea


Sloping armor gives added protection to any armor system. Because this is a conformal system it is able to be sloped as such if needed. In order to slope the armor it has to conform to an underlying scaffold shape that follows the desired slope. For instance to add sloped protection to a side of a vehicle a skin of thin sheet steel must be fitted to the side of the vehicle in the shape desired. A > shape for instance. Then the armor system is fitted to the thin sheet steel as described. A void separating the exterior from the interior is important. The steel should be rather mailable to be most effective. Modern body panel systems are perfect for this. The void allows 60-80% of the kinetic energy of the perpetrator or blast to be absorbed in that first layer. The dents from rounds hitting it can be filled with the liquid armor system in the field. Any water will work just about even salty water. It will not be quite as strong as the original because full strength is achieved in 28 days in the ceramic system but about 80% of the total strength is achieved in 24 hours.

Sounds like the only way their gonna get through your armor is if they start making diamond tipped rounds

reply to post by UFOTECH


Ok next question: which is better: Sloped armor or curved armor?

Ive now got idea's of CSS Manassas style because this armor can be applied to a curved surface.

For small arms, I personally believe that your armor doesn't have to be chipped away if you can deflect the round. The same could also be said with larger kenetic explosive projectiles.

[edit on 28-6-2009 by bismarcksea]

reply to post by bismarcksea


I just re-read your post and noticed your munition specifications. A 20mm is a really big round. A 20mm sabot has tremendous kinetic energy. We are estimating that our system will need to be bumped up to 1.25 inch for an effective stopping power for 50 caliber AP rounds with the outer skin layer being increased to a full 1/2" and include the CT-2750 C-Grid mesh replacing the e-glass scrim.

To deal with 20mm it would require nearly twice the thickness or about 2.5 inches and the outside layer would need to be one full inch thick and include 2 layers of reinforcement mesh. This would translate to a unit cost of about $300 per square foot. The object is to create an outer layer that can absorb most of the kinetic energy of the munitions that it encounters. The boron carbide ceramic is so hard that the rounds energy is spread throughout the panel and the vehicle the panel is hanging on. If it is not thick enough then the region around the strike point of the round ruptures and deforms into the void between the layers. It looses a lot of energy during this process but you want to be sure that there is enough hard surface that the energy is mostly absorbed in that outer layer. These can be patched quite easily in the field unlike most other armor systems.

reply to post by bismarcksea


Sloped leaves flat surfaces and curved does not. In the case of this armor system it really is just as effective either way to add protection. If they hit the armor straight on a flat surface of a sloped outer panel the energy when it is in the void between layers is deflected at the angle of the slope away from the flat inner armor area. Flat sloped armor is easier to achieve with ceramic when you use the C-Grid material because it is very stiff unlike steel mesh. The C-Grid reinforcing mesh can be shaped somewhat with a hot air gun. It loses a little of its strength when it is curved so we leave as much as possible flat.