Patent ID: 7383762
Filing Date: 2008-06-10
Classification: F41H,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A composite armor plate for absorbing and dissipating kinetic energy from high velocity, armor-piercing projectiles, as well as from soft-nosed projectiles, said plate comprising a single internal layer of pellets which are bound and retained in plate form by an elastic material, substantially internally within said elastic material, such that the pellets are bound in a plurality of rows and columns providing mutual lateral support, said pellets being made of ceramic material, wherein a majority of each of said pellets is substantially in contact with at lest three adjacent pellets and at least a majority of said pellets are substantially cylindrical in shape with at least one convexly-curved end face, further characterized in that spaces formed between said adjacent cylindrical pellets are only partial filled with a material for preventing the flow of soft metal from impacting projectiles through said spaces, said flow-preventing material being integrally formed as part of a special insert pellet, said insert pellet being in the form of a cylinder provided with projections extending only partially into the spaces formed between the sides of six adjacent cylindrical pellets, and blocking a major cross-sectional portion of said spaces, each of said projections being in spaced-apart relationship to at lest one of the two adjacent cylinders towards which it projects, said pellets being bound and retained in plate form by a solidified material, wherein said solidified material and said plate are elastic.