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New Metal Foam Armor Obliterates Bullets To Dust On Impact (discovery.com)
HughPickens.com writes: Discovery Magazine reports that researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a super strong armor material that literally turns bullets to dust upon impact. The armor plating is made in part from composite metal foams, or CMFs, which are both lighter and stronger than traditional metal plating used in body and vehicle armor. The armor -- only an inch thick -- features a ceramic strike face, Kevlar backing, and CMFs in the energy-absorbing middle layer. "We could stop the bullet at a total thickness of less than an inch, while the indentation on the back was less than 8 millimeters," says Afsaneh Rabiei. "To put that in context, the NIJ standard allows up to 44 millimeters indentation in the back of an armor." CMFs are very effective at shielding X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation. Other applications include space exploration and shipping nuclear waste which both require a material to be not only light and strong, but also capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures and blocking radiation. A video shows a 7.62 x 63 millimeter M2 armor-piercing projectile that was fired using standard testing procedures established by the Department of Justice for evaluating armor types.
"The use of airborne attacks had all bit ceased by the middle of the 21st century due to advances in anti-aircraft and anti-missile technology. Highly accurate, fast aiming laser or coil gun AA sites, coupled with the latest in anti-stealth radar/IR/laser detection systems, meant that most aircraft or missiles would never get close to their targets.
This means most battles are now fought on the ground. Due to fullerene armour making most weapons obsolete, most of the fighting today is men in suits of armour bashing each other over the head with hammers.
Oh how far we have come."
For those who are confused, 7.62x63mm is the metric designation for a .30-06.
Oh great. So now we're going to need even more guns.
this is a race , once you get an effective armor you then create better projectiles that nullify any advantages given by that armor .
wonder if they can create bullets with same metal foam ( at least on the face that hits the target )? may that would be be too expensive since not everyone will be wearing that armor and only few bullets hit targets anyway?
cheaper counter method would be to pack some bullets with some cheap poisonous dust.
Stopping a 30-06 M2 isn't actually that hard. A half inch of steel will do it easily. If that steel is of the Abrasion Resistant (AR) variety of decent grade (like AR400 or AR500), it will hold up to thousands of shots with virtually no wear.
Of course, a half inch steel plate is very heavy and not the sort of thing an infantryman wants to have to wear. Which is why Type IV plates are made of exotic materials like this.
This armor is actually a laminate. The impact surface is ceramic and very hard. The metal foam is in the middle and it distributes the load over a wider area. The Kevlar layers are presumably there to catch any fragments that penetrate. Actually, it sounds an awful lot like the Chobham that we use on the M1 Abrams.
And, since it is finally on topic, here is a link to a video with a bunch of bullet impacts in slow motion. It is amazing!.
See that "Preview" button?
I think Mega Damage armor has just been invented. Giant robots are just around the corner, since we already have Juicers.
no
The article is kinda pointless if it doesn't mention the weight of the armor, which is kinda the whole point.
I noticed that Batman seems to have this armor as he can deflect bullets. However, I always wondered why don't the bad guys just shoot him in the mouth? It is completely exposed.
I have my musket to defend my trailer park! Don't tread on me!
Or should I say RIAD ?
If we only had a "just ruler" etc etc
I don't care much for the military, but this looks like a very cool thing for NASA. Keep those astronauts safe from micro meteorites. Especially with the weight consideration.
Or alternatively, you could buy one of those armors for yourself when battling the oppressive forces.
Since they seem to think arms only refers to firearms there is no protection for legally being able to do so in many states.
No sir I dont like it.
> effective at shielding X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation sounds like the next fallout 4 armor mod.
The professor who leads the team is Prof. Afsaneh Rabiei. She came from Iran
Professor Afsaneh Rabiei is a very brainy woman
Another Iranian woman who is very brainy is Maryam Mirzakhani https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
She won the Field's Medal - an equivalent to the Nobel Prize for Mathematics in 2014
I have also met a lot of very intelligent Iranian women
I know a lot of Iranians, and their women are much more brainier than their men --- the Iranian men? Mostly religious fanatics
Instead of banning it, we should not let *them* prohibit us from owning it. As it is, I believe some States still prohibit body armor entirely and some ban body armor of different grades/classes.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Could you clarify for us, exactly whose military we should all spend our days in admiration of?
Ta
Not good enough. A foot-thick plate of this stuff still wouldn't protect me from my ex-wife's "Stare Of Death".
That bitch could galvanize a battleship with just a look. You guys know the look I'm talking about.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I do radiation shielding for a living, and there is no way 1 inch of low density _anything_ is going to give you any kind of useful radiation shielding. Maybe x-rays will be attenuated enough to talk about, but you may as well paper for all the neutron and high energy gamma shielding that will give you.
... the citizen patriots ... graz[ing] cattle on land without paying grazing fees ...
You missed the step in 1993 where the BLM arbitrarily slashed the number of cattle Bundy was permitted to graze. If accepted, this would destroy his livelihood and most of the value of his property (which was mainly due to the grazing rights of the attached permits).
This was apparently done due to environmentalist pressure to "protect the endangered desert tortoise". That's a pretty clear fifth-amendment "taking" of private property for public use without just compensation.
I'm not saying I agree (or disagree) with how he handled this. But there's a lot of law and history in that can of worms. Reducing it to grazing cattle without a permit picks a side and shoves the other side's claims under a rug.
It's notable that the BLM has stopped attempting to enforce their position. Bundy has his cattle back - still grazing the land in question.
(It's also notable that cattle are actually an environmental benefit on western range land. Much of the environmental troubles there are from invasive European grasses crowding out native plants. Native animals tend to avoid these grasses and eat the native plants by preference, while cattle consider them a treat and prefer them to the native fodder, thus keeping them under control. Clearing off the cattle is a recipe for environmental disaster.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
What the heck are CMFs?
Wikipedia is no help. :)
"You are under arrest for shooting a cop" ... disintegrated bullet fragments .... "
"Really? I admit to owning a gun, but don't you need to match the bullet to the gun to make such an accusation stick in a court of law?"
"We do have the
Does anyone care to explain the physics of that claim to me because I can't see how lowering the density of a barrier is going to make it more effective.
So its clearly cool for armor, but it sounds like something that might be very useful for say a space station? Both for shielding against incoming projectiles (granted slow ones) and potentiall for its radiation protection... not sure what the spectrum is on that danger though... How expensive is it... insulation properties? Seems like it could be used for a number of things from tornado proofing homes to gun barrels.
Bundy is a racist bigot and a loser who depends on government handouts. The grazing fees charged by BLM is way below the market rates. If BLM auctions off the grazing rights and Bundy had to bid for it in open market it would have costed him and other ranchers 10 times more. Other ranchers know they are getting a sweet deal from the federal government and try to avoid drawing attention to it. Bundy's greed is shining a light on their sweet deal and they are worried they all may have to pay higher grazing fees. That is why there is so much opposition to the Bundy family in the west.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
So that's what Imperial Storm Troopers wear!
That's a pretty clear fifth-amendment "taking" of private property for public use without just compensation
Reduced from 130 head to 100 head... not that much
But what the hell are talking about "private property"? This land Bundy was grazing on - Gold Butte area -- is Public Property and has been since the Mexican-American war.
But what the hell are talking about "private property"? This land Bundy was grazing on - Gold Butte area -- is Public Property and has been since the Mexican-American war.
But (as you'd know if you'd followed the link I provided) the land he actually OWNS, on which his infrastructure for operation is sited, is a prerequisite for the grazing permits. Most of its market value is the result of this utility. Reducing their number from enough for it to be a viable business will crash that private property's price.
There's a further issue, however. Historically established licensures have value in themselves - and can amount to property. Some examples are commercial broadcast licenses and taxi medallions. (Prior to Uber the going price of a New York City taxi medallion hat hit a million bux, and it's still over 3/4ths of that.) Officials don't get to arbitrarily destroy or transfer that value on a whim. There are a number of laws, legal principles, and precedents which limit their options in such situations.
The fact that some piece of land is "public property" does NOT mean that members of the public, with a well-established pattern of making use of that land in some particular way, can be suddenly and arbitrarily limited by a bureaucrat's whim, or even a governmental organization's considered decision, without no regard for defraying the cost to the former user.
(And I won't even go into the issue of where property comes from in the first place - beyond mentioning it in this sentence. B-) )
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
4 feet of lead is hardly enough to stop gamma radiation! No way guys.
He is crazy if you think about it; I am not.