New Low-Cost Manufacturing Methods to Produce Silicon Carbide (SiC) for Lightweight Armor Systems

摘要

Ceramic-based armors, commonly used in personnel protection, are actively being considered for platform vehicles due to their potential to dramatically reduce system weight. Silicon carbide (SiC) has been shown to hold considerable promise as the ceramic component in an armor system, and comes in several grades with differing costs. Hot pressed silicon carbide has been shown to provide excellent ballistic properties, but is manufactured at high cost and in limited volumes through a batch process. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), through the ManTech Armor program, has developed a program with BAE- Advanced Ceramics Division, Vista, CA to dramatically reduce cost and increase production volume of hot pressed silicon carbide. BAE has built a prototype manufacturing system and recently conducted a one-ton manufacturing run to demonstrate cost and viability of the system. The material will undergo ballistic evaluation to determine if the ceramic produced using these new manufacturing techniques is equivalent to conventionally processed material. This paper provides an overview of ceramic hot pressing, changes made through the ManTech program, cost goals and current status of the program.