A Basic Introduction of Bulletproof Vehicles
What kind of material is good to be used for the modification of bulletproof vehicles?
How to reduce the weight of bulletproof vehicles?
A comparison between ceramic composite bulletproof material and steel plate bulletproof material for the modification of bulletproof vehicles.
A comparisonamong the materials for the modification of bulletproof vehicles.
Bulletproof vehicles are equipped with additional appropriate anti-bullet materials, which makes the body of the vehicles have certain anti-bullet capabilities so as to achieve the effect of protecting the safety of human body. One of the leading anti-bullet product providers, AA shield, it sells all different types of bulletproof products, including bulletproof vehicles. A bulletproof vehicle generally belongs to the scope of the vehicle modification, and the modification of a vehicle body involves two aspects of technology. One is the vehicle modification technology; the other one is the anti-bullet material technology.
The vehicle modification technology mainly focuses on the weight of the anti-bullet materials which can affect the structures of the original vehicles, so it is necessary to strengthen the chassis, suspensions, door hinges, and brake systems. In foreign countries, there are usually professional manufacturers to do this research and production, which forms the industrial chain of professional production. Due to the different conditions in our country, the demand for bulletproof vehicles is not high, mainly in the armored cash transport vehicles, so the development of professional supporting facilities are not perfect; with the change of the situations, the imperfection will be changed in some degree, supporting manufacturers will gradually develop, and AA Shield is just one of them.
The development level of anti-bullet material technology in China is very high, and it can be said to synchronize with the technology in advanced countries; AA shield is on the same level of the technology, but this technology is under the control of the state owned military enterprises, not known by most people; have a look at the development level of tanks in our country, and it can be imagined. At present, there are three kinds of structural materials among anti-bullet materials, one, metal materials; two, high strength fiber composite materials; three, ceramic composite materials.
Metal materials: not ordinary steel, is alloy steel and alloy aluminum, aluminum foam, etc. AA shield has products belonging to this category. The advantage of metal anti-bullet materials is low level protection, such as hand gun, shotgun bullets, etc. The disadvantages are that the weight is high, the impact on the power system of modified vehicles is big, and for high kinetic energy bullets, especially the armor piercing bullets, the protective effect of is poor; therefore, metal plates generally cannot be used on high-end bulletproof vehicles.
High strength fiber composite materials: at present, the mostly used, the most cost-effective high strength fiber material is the aramid fiber and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber. However, because of the poor thermal resistance of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber, it is hardly used in the field of vehicle modification. Compared with metal plates, the advantages of the pure fiber composite materials in the modification of the low-end bulletproof vehicles are the technology is suitable, low weight, no abnormal noise, improve the quality of the modified vehicles, and has both sound and heat insulation functions. AA shield has products belonging to this category as well. The advantage of pure fiber composite materials is also low level protection.
Ceramic composite materials: ceramic composite materials can be metal /ceramic composite can also be high performance fiber / ceramic composite. These two kinds of composite materials are mainly to deal with the high level protection, especially the armor piercing bullets of a variety of guns, and the effect is evident. The ceramic composite technology has already been heavily used in the tanks and armored vehicles, and it is a very mature technology. Using the characteristics of the ceramic, it scatters the kinetic energy of the bullet in different directions, and it is an ideal structural material which hinders the formation of metal jet. AA shield also produces this type of products.
As anti-bullet materials used on vehicles, especially for the low power engine of the civilian vehicles, the lower the weight of the anti-bullet materials the better, and AA shield uses the same strategy. To sum up, among the materials used for high-end bulletproof vehicles, aramid/ceramic has the highest cost-effective ratio so far. However, the price of ceramic composite materials is higher than the traditional anti-bullet materials, and the modification and use of ceramic composite materials are somewhat more complicated than steel plates, and the modification manufacturers without experience are not up to the modification job. Therefore, there is also very little use of ceramic composite materials for bulletproof vehicles in foreign countries.
AA shield would like to clarify a few points here: the anti-bullet mechanism of steel plates determines the order of its anti-bullet performance in the proper sequence: the AK47 ordinary bullet/M14 ordinary bullet/M16 (SS109)/rifle armor piercing bullet. The thickness of the bulletproof steel plate is 4.5mm for AK47, 6.5mm for M14, 8mm for M16 SS109, above 15mm for armor piercing bullet. The load capacity limit of general civilian trucks is only suitable to defend M14. For the bulletproof standards of bulletproof vehicles, the European standard is usually used internationally, from level B1 to level B7, wherein B1 to B3 are the low level protection, B4 level requires the capability of defending AK47 ordinary bullet, B5 level requires the capability of defending M16 ordinary bullet, B6 level requires the capability of defending M14 ordinary bullet, B7 level requires the capability of defending M14 armor piercing bullet. From these indicators, it can be found that the steel plate that can defend B6 level cannot defend B5 level.