The Army is in need of an improved armor solution for ground vehicles that possesses modularity, reduced weight, attractive cost, high ballistic resistance, durability, and tolerance to environmental affects. To meet this need, the use of large panels made by casting metal around an array of ceramic tiles is proposed. Such a product will possess high mass efficiency due to the presence of the ceramic tiles, will have high durability due to the presence of the metal surround, and will have attractive cost due to the casting process. Moreover, significant opportunity exists to optimize such products (e.g., by choice of metal type, ceramic type, ceramic size and shape, etc.). From work in other areas (e.g., MMCs), M Cubed has significant skills with metal to ceramic wetting and bonding. This knowledge will be used on the present program to allow the development and production of high performance ceramic/metal macro-composites with excellent interfacial bond strength and structural integrity. A four task Phase I program is proposed, namely (1) research with cast metal encapsulation of ceramics, (2) process development, scale-up and testing, (3) manufacture of two deliverable 26 x 26 armor arrays, and (4) generate cost model.
Keywords: Vehicle Armor, Metal Matrix Composites, Ceramics, Metal Encapsulation, Large Structures, Aluminum, Magnesium, Titanium
