Spray Formed Aluminum Armor Plate (1000-780)

Triton Systems Inc, Aluminum Consultants Group and, the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State University propose to develop spray formed aluminum armor plate using their Spray Metal Forming (SMF) facility. This laboratory has produced alloys with strength in excess of 115 ksi with elongation in excess of 8%. These alloys can only be fabricated using a rapid solidification process such as the SMF process used at the Applied Research Lab at PSU. This high performance aluminum answers a need for lightweight armor. Although not a replacement for steel, the proposed high performance aluminum, for certain threat levels can be significantly lighter than a steel solution. Rapid solidification processes such as SMF offer distinct advantages over conventional ingot metallurgy processing. Due to cooling rates on the order 103 to 105 K/s, bulk material produced using the SMF process exhibits enhanced mechanical properties due to the resultant fine grain size homogeneous distribution of second phases and the absence of macro-segregation. In certain alloy systems, a high volume fraction of fine (0.05 to 0.2 mm) intermetallic dispersoids may be obtained in SMF material processed at higher cooling rates. Large plates of this high performance aluminum will be fabricated for ballistic testing.