I’ve recently gotten into building DIY body armor and have been looking into Unidirectional UHMWPE.From what I’ve seen in online testing, the material is highly effective:12 layers can stop a 9mm round with less weight and backface deformation than Kevlar.135 layers can stop rifle rounds like .223 and .308.165 layers paired with a ceramic strike face (even basic floor tiles) and a polycarbonate middle layer can shatter and stop mild steel penetrators.As far as I am aware, there are better materials than floor tiles.Such as:Al2O3, which is cheap but a bit heavier than the alternativesSilicon carbide, which should still be cheap but lighter and harderBoron carbide, which isn't cheap but is the lightest and hardestI found some Chinese sites selling UD UHMWPE for $25 per kg. Are there better sources for that stuff?Are there better alternatives to UHMWPE? I know of basalt fiber, glass fiber, etc., but AFAIK they are worse.UHMWPE already works just by loosely folding it, but if pressed and heat treated, it gains more strength due to the added delamination on impact.How great would the difference between pressed and heat treated be, and what would be recommended for pressing it yourself?
Idk about HDPE, but aramid is pressed in an autoclave. It would be very awkward, but there's not particular reason you couldn't clamp the layers tight in a vice and hold the whole thing above a large enclosed boiling vessel for half an hour to replicate the effect. I recall some hobbyists who make helmets with kevlar and resin use vacuum sealers to remove air bubbles, though I doubt that would have the same effect in a material that isn't absorbent.
>>65514453The guy in the vid did it with a 50 ton Hydraulic press.I mean as far as i care i could just use heated plates and press them together.idk maybe a car jack could work?but im looking for some solid numbers.
>>65514444This is it if you can make it fast. Im sure there are minor effect on different crystallinity and fiber frictions and weird theories about ballistic protections but modeling it seems to be grad student work.
Gilliam Arms makes plates basically in a well equipped garage. Use their videos for pointers.Stick with Alumina for homemade plates. SiC it's harder to get good grades of on the cheap and China doesn't do boron carbide well.Specialty ceramics and other strike face materials, like titanium, can be ordered from Adept.
>>65515222Thanks, man. I appreciate the answer
>>65514444/gq/ here. I've seen fiberglass pressed with resin to make it into effective armor. There's plenty of YT videos on that sort of thing too. If you're not adverse to buying semi-completed armor ArmorCo sells pressed fiberglass for use as wall/vehicle armor, and Blackbeard sells actual armor ceramic blanks. Epoxy the two together, add a nylon cover, and you've got a rifle plate.Hell, Blackbeard sells full Level IV "blanks" that just need a cover. They've got a literal shipping container of effectively complete 0101.04 compliant Level IVs that just need a cover, $40,000 and it can be yours (plus your own pickup because lmao nobody's shipping something like 8 tons of semi-finished body armor plates).
