Innovative manufacturing research on forming of large light armor alloy sections resistant to blast and penetration

Weldments that join plates of aluminum or steel combat vehicle hulls can be the lowest strength area of the structure and thus provide a decreased level of ballistic protection. To avoid welds, seamless hulls could be formed from thick plate if a suitable manufacturing process is developed. Corvid Technologies, teamed with Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) performed a series of modeling, simulation, prototyping and forming tasks during Phase I that identified a suitable process for forming thick plate. Also in Phase I, Corvid and CTC identified an industrial forming partner ideally suited for potential production-scale forming. In Phase II we propose to further characterize and validate the process for large hull or armor appliqu forming through clearly defined simulation, prototyping and testing tasks. Corvid Technologies offers an analysis capability of penetration and blast loading events using state-of-the-art commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and in-house developed computational tools. Corvids analysis will provide direction on material usage and armor systems design. CTC has been developing lightweight ceramic/metal composite armor system under the auspices of the US Army Tank-Automotive research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).