TECH TALK

March 2006

Ceramic Armor Advance Achieved

What to do with a light, extremely hard substance that would be ideal for body armor, except it tended to crumble and fracture during the manufacturing process?

A Georgia Institute of Technology researcher has perfected a process that makes boron carbide harder and poreless in high temperature manufacturing. The result is a material with remarkable ballistic armor properties. The scientist Robert Speyer subsequently created a company under the auspices of GIT that is fabricating prototypes of this material. The boron carbide formation process allows for the creation of complicated, curved shapes for use in helmets and other body armor. Shown here is a small-scale prototype helmet.

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