Science News

Video: Metal Foam Armor Disintegrates Bullets On Impact

A professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, Afsaneh Rabiei, has developed a new armor that can withstand the force of an armor-piercing round with a mere inch’s worth of material.

The armor is constructed from a combination of materials that employs either Kevlar panels or aluminum 7075, boron carbide ceramics and sandwiched between it all, a composite metal foam used to absorb the energy of a bullet’s impact.

Popular Science reports that the new armor has met the standard imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice for Type IV armor, which means the new armor developed by NC State professor Afsaneh Rabiei can withstand armor-piercing bullets.

Rabiei was quoted by Phys.org as having said that the new armor can stop a bullet “at a total thickness of less than an inch” and that the indentation on the backside of the armor, when tested, measured less than 8 millimeters. Adding context to his statement, Rabiei noted that “the NIJ standard allows up to 44 millimeters indentation in the back of an armor.”

We could stop the bullet at a total thickness of less than an inch, while the indentation on the back was less than 8 millimeters […] To put that in context, the NIJ standard allows up to 44 millimeters indentation in the back of an armor.

As if stopping armor-penetrating rounds wasn’t enough of an achievement, the armor’s composite metal foam might also find application in the transportation of nuclear waste as well as space exploration, according to Phys.org.

Click to comment
To Top

Hi - We Would Love To Keep In Touch

If you liked this article then please consider joing our mailing list to receive the latest news, updates and opportunities from our team.

We don't want an impostor using your email address so please look for an email from us and click the link to confirm your email address.