Personnel and vehicle ballistic armor can be damaged in handling and use, and by severe ballistic and shock impact. Dropping a ceramic armor plate onto a hard surface, or diving for cover, could fracture the ceramic, cause fiber/matrix damage in the retention layer, or could de-laminate any of the adjacent layers. Adhesive bonds can degrade slowly over time and their integrity is highly dependent on the surface preparation when applied. A field portable unit is acute for the deployed testing of body armor and vehicle ballistic armor at the point of manufacture, field testing in active combat zones, and depot testing as deployed armor is recovered and stored for future use. Novel non-linear acoustic and impact resonance NDI techniques are proposed to detect submillimeter delamination of ceramic-composite interfaces. These techniques can identify micro-deformations and micro-cracking before they evolve into critical defects capable of weakening or threatening the structural integrity of the material, detect weaknesses in adhesive bonds before they disbond; and identify millimeter cracks in ceramics. NLA Diagnostics is uniquely qualified to deliver a field portable unit based on its current RECON, a portable instrument designed to accurately detect and assess micro-cracks and fractures in structures using multiple NDI techniques.
