Patent ID: 7793579
Filing Date: 2010-09-14
Classification: F41H

Abstract:
1. An armor tile suitable for use in an armor system for inhibiting penetration of ballistic projectiles, the tile comprising a body having: a major face bounded by an edge at the perimeter of the major face, the edge comprising four long edge portions and four short edge portions, the short edge portions being shorter than the long edge portions, the long and short edge portion alternating progressively around the perimeter with adjacent long and short edge portions extending at an internal angle of about 135° relative to each other; a minor face that is bounded by an edge at the perimeter of the minor face, that is generally everywhere equidistant from the major face, that has a smaller area than the major face, and that is positioned such that the perimeter of the minor face does not extend outwardly of the perimeter of the major face when the body is viewed facing normal to the minor face; and edge surfaces extending between the perimeters of the major and minor faces, the edge surfaces being shaped so that plural tiles can fit together edge-to-edge with the major and minor faces of one tile generally aligned respectively with the minor and major faces of an adjacent tile and with an edge surface of the one tile overlaying an edge surface of the adjacent tile, when viewed facing normal to faces of the tiles, with only a portion of the thickness of each tile overlapping so that the face-to-face thickness of a pair of tiles positioned edge-to-edge is no greater than the distance between the major and minor faces of one of the tiles, the edge surfaces being without any undercut portion, the edge surfaces not being completely planer from the perimeter of the major face to the perimeter of the minor face, and the edge surfaces being shaped such that the edge surface of the one tile generally conforms to the edge surface of the other tile when the pair of tiles is positioned edge-to-edge.