MULTIPURPOSE SPALL PROTECTIVE, ENERGY ABSORBING HYBRIDSIL MATERIAL FOR MILITARY VEHICLE INTERIORS

Through Army SBIR funding, NanoSonic will develop and empirically optimize a next-generation Spall Protective, Energy Absorbing (SPEA™) HybridSil® material that will provide vehicle occupants with pioneering combinatorial protection from 1) fragmentation behind-armor debris (BAD) and 2) high velocity head / neck impact during underbody blast, crash, and rollover events. NanoSonic's SPEA material will equip vehicle design engineers with a pioneering multipurpose automotive component that will function as both an interior trim energy absorption and spall liner material. Through previous Army SBIR funding, NanoSonic has created an interior head impact protective trim composite that exceeds the performance objectives outlined in MIL-PRF-32518 for head impact protection and fire, smoke, and toxicity (FST) resistance. NanoSonic will build from this promising technical foundation during the Phase I SBIR program to create flexible, easily installed HybridSil SPEA materials through iterative MIL-STD-662 and FMVSS 201U testing. Promising systems will advance to cone calorimetry and smoke toxicity testing in preparation for larger scale Phase II development and integration efforts. In support of a near term Phase III, HybridSil resins have a current production capacity of 8,000 lbs. / day, a MRL of 6, and have been integrated onto combat active DoD platforms for trial demonstrations.