Advanced Materials for Vehicle Headliners

Light, maneuverable, fast, and fully protected vehicles are needed on today's battlefields. The current fleet of military vehicles is not equipped with sufficient interior trim protection. In a field of operations, US Army vehicles often encounter blast events such as landmines, improvised explosive devices (IED), and other explosive threats toward the underside of the vehicle, pushing the vehicle in an upward motion and side to side or end to end. These threats, unfortunately, can contribute to soldier casualties. Even when properly restrained, the soldier can experience high velocity motion in infinite directions causing the head to be particularly susceptible to injury. Head injuries pose the biggest threat of life-altering debilitation or death to soldiers. Military vehicles, therefore, require adequate protection in these activities. Current technologies for headliner materials do not afford the exceptional level of blast protection and flame, smoke, and toxicity (FST) resistance that the Army desires. CRG will implement an energy-damping solution that uses polymers with engineered properties that have damping abilities beyond the physical limits of a traditional material and demonstrate resilient qualities. Intumescent materials incorporated into the material design will prevent the headliners from causing additional harm to soldiers from FST.