Development of light weight transparent bullet proof polymeric laminates

Armed vehicles, improvised explosive device blast-proof vehicles, require their windshields and windows to be transparent and yet be resistant to high-velocity impact of splinters. Hence, composite which is of ballistic grade and yet transparent is in real need for all these applications. This study is dedicated to finding a practical solution for using transparent polycarbonate (PC) laminate made using solvent vapor bonding for ballistic applications. The solvent that was proved to be best for solvent vapor bonding of polycarbonate sheets was dichloromethane, as the bond strength was observed to be high from the results of lap shear tensile test. The transparency retention is reasonably high when solvent vapor bonding was used and the toughness has increased near to 50% in comparison with nonlaminated PC. In this study, a polycarbonate laminate with dimensions 150 * 150 * 40 mm made using solvent vapor bonding and is tested with two 9-mm bullets fired with velocity of 430 m/s from a distance of 5 m. The laminae successfully stopped both the bullets without any back face signature and there was no brittle failure as such, rather delamination happened at interface of laminae since it has essentially absorbed the impact energy of bullet. Highlights * Solvent vapor bonding of polycarbonate laminate. * Transparent ballistic shield with layer of polycarbonate laminate. * Enhancement of mechanical properties of solvent-vaporized bonding polycarbonate laminate. * Ballistic testing of transparent polycarbonate laminate. KEYWORDS composites, impact resistance, polycarbonates, toughness, transparency
1 | INTRODUCTION Police officers, military personnel, and members of the armed forces are often under threat. They are exposed to the risks, varying from rock pelting to gun fires. [...]