Aromatic Nylons for Transparent Armor Applications

Failure and kinetic energy absorption mechanisms upon ballistic impact of two new types of nylons, TROGAMID T-5000 (T-5000) and TROGAMIDCX7323 (CX-7323) as well as traditional materials such as polycarbonate (PC) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) were examined and compared. Under ballistic impact, T-5000 showed brittle failure similar to PMMA, while CX-7323 exhibited ductile behavior similar to PC. Like PC and PMMA, the failure modes of T-5000 and CX-7323 are different from each other. However, unlike PC and PMMA, the overall ballistic performance of these two TROGAMIDs were similar to each other. Among these four materials, PMMA exhibited the most sensitive response to frequency or impact velocity by showing the most rapid increase of kinetic energy absorption with increasing impact velocity or sample thickness. For monolithic samples the ballistic impact resistance of these two TROGAMIDs is noticeably better than PC and PMMA for a wide range of thicknesses. Furthermore, the hybrid of these two materials shows a synergistic effect, which is similar to behavior observed in hybrids of PC and PMMA. The data obtained from flat plaques indicate that the improvement of ballistic resistance of these new nylon materials from the currently fielded system could be significant in certain applications. Prepared in collaboration with Paulson Manufacturing Corp., Temecula, CA and Degussa Corporation, Parsippany, NJ. Presented at the Army Science Conference (25th), Transformational Army Science and Technology - Charting the future of S&T for the Soldier, held in Orlando, Florida on 27-30 Nov 2006. Published in proceedings of the same. See also ADM002075. The original document contains color images.