Unreported "Secrets" of the Ceramic Armor Industry

There are certain things that manufacturers and re-sellers are concealing. 

You need to know this.

Every week, someone asks me the same question.  "How much do your plates weigh?"  I usually try to get their phone number because the explanation takes some time. It's sort of a loaded question and the answers lie in the amount of ceramic coverage and performance - measured in "backface deformation" (or BFD).

As you may already know, a ceramic armor plate is normally manufactured with a Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight (UHMWPE) backing material in the rear of the plate adhered to a ceramic strike face through an adhesive layer.  This configuration allows the ceramic to fragment and compress against the UHMWPE - eroding and yawing the projectile as it enters the armor. This produces additional drag and deceleration effects.

The projectile's fragments (or entire pieces in some cases) come to rest in the backing material.  So, the UHMWPE acts like a "catcher's mit" to decelerate and retain the dangerous bullet fragments.  The inside area of the armor plate made from UHMWPE and worn against the body is referred to as the "wear face."

BFD is the amount of deformation in the originally smooth wear face of the plate after absorbing ballistic energy.  The National Institute of Justice maximum BFD for armor plates is 44mm. Consideration of total BFD is important because elevated BFD equates to bodily damage for the wearer. Less BFD means a couple of things: 1. Less damage to the armor wearer and 2. Increased multiple projectile hit performance (most people don't think about that second one).

Let's discuss total plate weight first -

If I told someone that our alumina Model 1012-RF3-ALF weighs 8 pounds (Level IV alumina plate) and competitor's Level IV plate weighs 6.2 pounds - most consumers would assume that they are purchasing the same product and that the competitor's plate is lighter.  But, nothing could be further from the truth.

About 90% of ceramic armor plates sold through online venues like eBay have 1" of foam around the edges of the plate... meaning there is NO ceramic along the plate's edges.  95% of Chinese armor retains this rubber or foam edge. 

Note: There is some well-built Asian-made armor (more about that later).

A graphical depiction of ceramic coverage across a backing plate is illustrated below (pro tip: the ceramic coverage does not always match the overall ceramic armor plate dimensions): 

The majority of ceramic armor plates only have ceramic coverage corresponding to the red area in the image.  From the edge of the red area to the edge of the plate is about 1".  See the image below that clearly shows this style of construction. Since the 1" rubber edge is much lighter than the ceramic, the overall plate weight is much lower.  In an NIJ Level IV alumina plate, this weight "savings" is approximately two pounds (versus an edge-to-edge plate)!

The Level IV alumina plate above weighs 6.2 pounds.  With rubber along the outer 1" of the plate.  The Level IV alumina plate below weighs approximately 8 pounds because the ceramic is adhered to the backing plate all the way to the edge of the plate.  This type of ceramic placement is called "edge-to-edge" coverage.

Both plates are the same protection level (NIJ Level IV) and produced from the same ceramic material (aluminum oxide).  But the heavier plate is outfitted with ceramic existing all the way out to the edge of the plate. 

This is also true of Level III plates.  The alumina Level III plates with the foam edges are generally 5 pounds and the edge-to-edge versions are about 7 pounds.

Here is the problem with this... most sellers and manufacturers never tell this to the general public.  In fact, many armor "sellers" are purchasing Chinese-made armor and flipping it for a profit.  Most re-sellers don't know this fact either.

Unfortunately - customers purchase armor plates without knowing that there is no ceramic... and no resultant rifle level protection along the edges of the plates.

At GTS, we educate our customers and disclose the ceramic pattern coverage on all of our products.  Many customers still choose the plate with 1" rubber edges - but, we make sure they are fully aware of its configuration.  While there is no rifle level protection provided by the rubber edge, the UHMWPE backing material that exists under the rubber edge still provides protection against handguns at the NIJ 3a level.  Many times, we discover that traffic officers purchase these plates since they are most likely to face handgun-related threats.  They still get hybrid protection at an affordable price and weight.

A pure gold bar with certain dimensions will have a certain weight because gold weighs a predictable amount (due to its purity).  Using that same line of thought and with a constant backing material and thickness - alumina ceramic armor plates will generally weigh:

Level III: 5 pounds for plates with a 1" rubber edge and 7 pounds for edge-to-edge ceramic coverage.

Level IV: 6 pounds for plates with a 1" rubber edge, 7 pounds for plates with a 1/2" rubber edge and 8 pounds for edge-to-edge ceramic coverage.

Know what you are buying and understand that just because a 10" x 12" ceramic plate's dimensions are 10" x 12", it does NOT necessarily mean that the ceramic itself is 10" x 12". 

Let's close with an important discussion of BFD and an associated, alarming trend.

With the advent of lighter, high-performance backing materials, manufacturers are now reducing the thickness of their backplates while simultaneously retaining high-risk production techniques.  This strategy can also reduce weight - so, it's important to understand the overall plate layout. 

We have recently noticed an alarming trend toward reducing the overall thickness of backing materials.  In an effort to compete with well-built Asian-made armor that soaks up the majority of the market share (mainly due to labor cost savings and ability to pass ballistics testing), some U.S.-based manufacturers are allowing higher BFD to creep into their designs.  Normal 10-14mm UHMWPE backing plates are now being traded out for 6-8mm "high performance" backing materials.  This drives the typical BFD in those products from a respectable mid-20s (mm) measurement to upper 30's and low 40's (close to the NIJ 44mm maximum).  This strategy is meant to make armor plates thinner and lighter... but disregards an element of quality plate design: redundancy.

In ceramic armor manufacturing, the element of redundancy means that  manufacturing techniques allow for some materials variations and process variations so that adequate levels of safety, efficiency and predictability can be maintained.  The closer a plate is designed to its minimal materials required to match NIJ performance limits - the less engineering redundancy of the product.

Engineering the armor down to bare minimums in backing materials is a poor strategy because it does not account for variations and fluctuations that always occur during the manufacturing process. As any forward-leaning company knows: risks must be mitigated.

Let me explain a little more.  One method of adhering the ceramic strike faces to the UHMWPE backing plates is through the use of heat-activated, adhesive sheets. Adhesive sheets can be a proprietary amalgam and act to standardize the thickness of the adhesive layer across the backing material (a good thing).  Proper use of these materials creates a strong bond between the ceramic and the UHMWPE fiber that is also somewhat elastic.

This is where American manufacturing generally excels over our Chinese counterparts.  Utilization of proper pressure, time and temperature formulas are superior to the adhesives used on Chinese armor assembly lines.  Not to say that the Asian method is ineffective... but it is no match for the properly applied, heat-activated adhesives.

The manufacturing process requires three things for the heat-activated sheets to be properly activated:  1. proper temperature. 2. proper pressure. 3. proper time interval.  Thermally activated sheets are one of the most difficult things to master about ceramic armor plate manufacturing because so many variables impact the three above elements of the formula. There must also be a "grab" between the adhesive and upper UHMWPE fibrous layers.

For example, an edge-to-edge ceramic strike face tends to retain more heat than a partial strike face.  This heat retention may mean that the adhesive activates more quickly. As a result, the time element of the formula may be different between two products.  Other variables change the formula: thickness of the ceramic, thickness of the UHMWPE, ceramic material, number of armor plates activated per batch.  In other words, using heat-activated sheets is effective, but it is urgent to consider these elements and to design in some redundancy. Use of a low-temperature activated adhesive is paramount in these cases, but not a re-melt product that will ooze in your hot police car trunk... see what I mean?

One potentially damaging element in the cocktail is temperature because UHMWPE is temperature sensitive.  At temperatures above 130°C, the original chemical bonds within UHMWPE begin to change - potentially weakening the backing material.  In other words, if you are reducing the thickness of the UHMWPE backer while engaged in thermal activation of adhesive sheets as your materials adhesion process - you are introducing unmitigated risks into your product.  Fluctuations in temperature, pressure or time (or a combination of more than one of these factors) could introduce undetected (and unmitigated) weaknesses in the backing materials.  This is especially true of very thin UHMWPE backing plates because they are already barely adequate to perform within the NIJ's 44mm maximum BFD requirement. 

The thinning of the backing material also has another unwanted effect:  it permits additional BFD, which deteriorates multiple-hit performance.  Whenever the backing material is forced away from the ceramic, there is less overall contact between the two materials.  This seperation in materials has a negative impact on multi-hit ballistic resistance. 

Here are the takeaways from this page:

• Watch out for companies that conceal the exact materials and layout of their armor plates. Low plate weights can mean a reduced ceramic strike face and/or a dangerously thinned-out UHMWPE backing plate.

• Review a company comprehensively before you purchase.  Do they have a community? Are they transparent? Do they actively discuss risk mitigation? If they aren't talking about the risks - the chances are that they haven't even thought about some of them.

• Review a company's performance and testing history.  This is super important.  If a mistake was made and a test was failed - was the exact issue corrected? Was the company open about the exact issue(s)?  Were they rolling out new products before the root cause of the primary failure was identified?  

Our plates are highly effective. Don't use the "other guy" and squint when you hear a round pop off because you're not sure if it's coming through your plate or not.

GTS has taken two approaches regardng BFD and our products:

1. We offer a regular product line that takes a middle-ground approach with typical Level IV BFDs in the upper 20's to low 30's (mm). We never, ever use minimal materials barely able to meet NIJ standards. This builds in some redundancy in the safety of our products for you.

2. We offer a reduced BFD performance via our FIREFIGHT series of plates. Our FIREFIGHT 4 plates have shown ballistic resistance in testing against five .30 M2 AP projectiles with limited BFD. See the product listing and our social media channels for more details.

By the way - almost all of our plates can be outfitted with trauma backers to reduce BFD.

Hope you enjoyed this - email me with questions!
WG