Paper-thin super material stops flying bullets

[MechAg94]

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/11/14/paper-thin-super-material-stops-flying-bullets/?intcmp=obinsite

The type of material, called a structured polymer composite, can actually self-assemble into alternating glassy and rubbery layers. When performing ballistic tests on the material at MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, those 20-nanometer-thick layers were able to stop a 9-millimeter bullet and seal the entryway behind it, according to a Rice University article.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/11/14/paper-thin-super-material-stops-flying-bullets/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2CPHCq9oY

This looks pretty interesting.  If it were thin enough and light enough, it might provide better protection for arms and legs also.  I imagine anything that can reduce the weight of body armor or provide better protection would be welcome.  Face and head protection might be good also.

[Tallpine]

Even if it got dented and you got knocked on your back, it would be handy if you thought that woman was planning to shoot your captain again 

[MechAg94]

 

Now, I'll be down in the gutter all weekend.  I guess that would be h........umm useful.  

I was thinking more along the lines of motorcycle style helmets that would be bullet or shrapnell proof.  Goggles at a minimum.  A lot of the SciFi books have soldiers with full helmets that have ballistic protection along with hearing and respiratory protection and communications.  I guess armored space suits are only a step away from that.  

I would also be curious what the properties would be of something like that scaled up to vehicle armor.  Would it be effective against large munitions or could it be used in addition to heavier armor.  Too early to tell I guess. 

[seeker_two]

You'd still need something to dissapate the kinetic energy, or you'll have a heck of a blunt-trauma injury....

[Hawkmoon]

Language fail (not surprising, given a mix of scientists and "journalists").

If the membrane stopped the bullet ... how is there any hole to heal?

[birdman]

It's not really paper thin btw.
And what has to be dissapated isn't kinetic energy, it's momentum.  if I fling you at 60mph into a brick wall, your kinetic energy is dissapated completely, but the change in momentum (impulse, or force integrated over time) is what kills you.  You can reduce the blunt trauma in two ways, spreading it out (lower pressure) or spreading it out in time by absorbing the momentum over a distance.  Ballistic vests use both, though your body provides the distance for the latter.  Theoretically, an infinitely stiff, material would reduce the pressure the most, but then the energy would be deposited into the material locally, and melt it.  It's a trade off.  These materials show promise for some applications, mainly hard armor.  For soft armor, shear thickening fluid impregnated cloths show significant promise as they can supply both stiffness and elasticity as required.

[MechAg94]

Hard armor is what I was thinking of.  If you could make the hard plates lighter and/or thinner, it opens up a lot more flexibility in designing armor to cover more parts of the body better. 

Even better if it can be done cheaper. 

[RocketMan]

Heck, my ex-wife's homemade pizza dough had many of the same qualities.

[just Warren]

If this turns out to be a useable thing in the field and typical small-arms rounds can be stopped by it what does that mean for infantry combat? Do we go back to using sharp or pointy sticks up close in order to jam said point through a gap in the armor too small to be seen or exploited at a distance?

Bigger rounds out of bigger guns? Smaller, faster rounds?

More grenades? Other blast-radius devices?

Dinosaurs?

[birdman]

If this turns out to be a useable thing in the field and typical small-arms rounds can be stopped by it what does that mean for infantry combat? Do we go back to using sharp or pointy sticks up close in order to jam said point through a gap in the armor too small to be seen or exploited at a distance?

Bigger rounds out of bigger guns? Smaller, faster rounds?

More grenades? Other blast-radius devices?

Dinosaurs?

Bigger / more powerful guns and ammunition.
In the battle of bullet and armor, bullet always wins eventually.

Even with this material, armor to shrug off a 50BMG SLAP round or the jet of an HEDP 25mm XM25 round would be a might tough to walk in.

As for blast devices...well, there are ways of reducing the effect of that, I'm working on one.

[HankB]

From the pictures, the structure that stopped three 9mm slugs is well over an inch thick . . . not paper thin. Ordinary polycarbonate would do as well, so this isn't really a great demonstration of a disruptive technology.

Where this might find application is in spall protection inside armored vehicles, depending on how flammable it is.

[MrsSmith]

Even if it got dented and you got knocked on your back, it would be handy if you thought that woman was planning to shoot your captain again 

I see what you did there. 

[Scout26]

Or full body armor.  If you're an Operative.

[Tallpine]

If this turns out to be a useable thing in the field and typical small-arms rounds can be stopped by it what does that mean for infantry combat? Do we go back to using sharp or pointy sticks up close in order to jam said point through a gap in the armor too small to be seen or exploited at a distance?

Bigger rounds out of bigger guns? Smaller, faster rounds?

More grenades? Other blast-radius devices?

Dinosaurs?

We got cut off.

We have to resort to cannibalism.

[MechAg94]

From the pictures, the structure that stopped three 9mm slugs is well over an inch thick . . . not paper thin. Ordinary polycarbonate would do as well, so this isn't really a great demonstration of a disruptive technology.

Where this might find application is in spall protection inside armored vehicles, depending on how flammable it is.

.  I missed the link to the other article with the video.  That said, this material looks like it would take more hits in the same area without failing.

Also, it does not necessarily mean it needs to be that thick to stop a 9mm.  I guess we'll see how it develops. 

[wuluf]

it's only a 9.  Couldn't possibly stop a .45....

[birdman]

it's only a 9.  Couldn't possibly stop a .45....

Totally.  You would have to duck tape two plates together for that.