Room Temperature Ballistic Testing Backing Material

Roma Plastilina #1, (RP#1), clay has been used as an industry standard recording medium for body armor testing that stems as far back as 1977. The use of RP#1 is also labor intensive, often requiring four (4) or more hours to pack in calibration box, and then routinely followed by an x-ray to identify unwanted voids. Prior to ballistic armor testing, the RP#1 is heat conditioned and calibrated using a sphere-drop. Ballistic armor tests typically consist of 6 or 12 shots, followed by RP#1 calibration re-check to validate the results. If results from the post-test validation drop test fail, the associated ballistic armor tests are considered baseless. METSS proposes to develop a new, stable, uniform and consistent ballistic backing material with a controllable formulation and mechanical behavior characteristics capable of passing the standard column drop calibration test at room temperature. In order to accomplish this, an initial, key-property characterization and rheological understanding of the existing ballistic backing material is necessary. Specifically, METSS has identified starting base materials and at least eight (8) key, laboratory-scale dynamic tests that will be adapted to fully characterize the existing ballistic backing material RP#1.