Ballistic Protection

Hard Ballisitic Plates from Schunk Technical Ceramics

Maximum protection with minimum weight

What do personal protection and vehicle armor have in common? In both cases, you need equipment that consistently defeats threats and offers maximum protection. In both areas weight also plays an important role. In order to be comfortable to wear, protective vests and shields must be as light as possible.Vehicle armor must be light to reduce wear-and-tear on the drivetrain, suspension, and chassis.

Body Armor

Being a hard ballistic component, monolithic ceramic plates are used in the highest protection classes to break up armor-piercing projectiles upon impact and to absorb some of the kinetic energy and distribute it to a larger area.

Ballistic protective vests and shields have to defeat small arms and rifle attacks to protect soldiers and police officers. In combination with suitable fiber composite backing, they withstand projectiles with high penetrating power even with multiple shots. They ensure that high-hardness core projectiles break and erode upon impact. The kinetic energy is thereby divided into lower momentum fragments that are more easily caught within the composite plate. The use of portable, compact, yet highly effective and reliable solutions of low weight solutions plays an important role in the field of personal protection. The focus here is on the users acceptance of the protective equipment and their remaining mobility in hazardous situations. The combination of high hardness and low density of the ceramic armor plates predestines our product for lightweight solutions with high protection performance. Thanks to our leading production technology, we are able to flexibly supply both prototype samples and large series-production quantities in reproducibly high quality and on time.

Aircraft Armor

In the field of aircraft armoring in particular, the use of large, complex shaped monolithic ceramic segments enables solutions which ensure the highest level of effectiveness with low weight.

For ballistic protection of aircraft, larger area panels can be used to achieve the ballistic effectiveness, usually with lower velocity requirements and reduced multihit requirements. Thanks to our modern production technology, we are able to create a large variety of geometries characterized by very precise cuts, among other things. Optional holes and cut-outs are also possible via machine processing.

Vehicle Armor

Dimensionally precise cladding of large, complex surfaces for vehicle protection is only possible through the efficient use of polygonal ceramic armor components. In addition, the mosaic-like structure optimizes the ability to stop multiple armor-piercing projectiles.

Ground vehicle protection usually involves the dimensionally accurate covering of large, complex surfaces. This is made possible by the use and design of mosaic panels made up of smaller hexagonal and square tiles. Such multi-tile setups also increase the ability to withstand multiple impacts. The combination of high hardness and low density of the plates predestines our product for lightweight solutions with high protection performance. Thanks to our leading production technology, we are able to flexibly supply both prototype samples and large series-production quantities in reproducibly high quality and on time.

Products

Monolithic Plates for Ceramic Body Armor

Monolithic Ceramic Plates for Vehicle Protection

Polygonal Ceramic Plates for Vehicle Armor

Complex Shaped, Monolithic Ceramic Segments

Material Overview

SafeGuard-GD

Pressure-casted silicon-infiltrated & reaction-bonded silicon carbide

Our SafeGuard-GD is the class-leading pressure-casted RBSiC (silicon-infiltrated, reaction-bonded silicon carbide) with a density of 3.1 g/cm³ and reported outstanding quality-performance in the market for already several decades. It does fulfi ll the requirements for most threats. Apart from specifi c military applications this material would be chosen for more cost-sensitive civilian or law-enforcement programs.

SafeGuard-B4C

Pressure-casted reaction-bonded boron carbide

Our SafeGurad-B₄C is the class-leading pressure-casted RBB₄C (reaction-bonded boron carbide) with a density of 2.85 g/cm³ and the preferred standard grade for the vast majority of military suppliers. The Max-Lightweight Structure defeats most small arms threats and provides outstanding hardness for extreme energy dissipation.

IntrinSiC®

3D-printed siliconinfiltrated & reaction-bonded silicon carbide

IntrinSiC® is our class leading 3D-printed RBSiC (siliconinfiltrated, reaction-bonded silicon carbide) with a density of 3.05 g/cm³. This material is substantially similar to SafeGuard-GD for mechanical properties with a slightly different chemistry due to it being 3D-printed. Ballistically, it performs very close to SafeGuard-GD with some exceptions for specific threats. 3D-printing of this material allows it to be made in custom, complex, large, and strongly curved shapes.

IntrinSiC®-B4C

3D-printed reaction-bonded boron carbide

IntrinSiC®-B₄C is our class leading 3D-printed RBB₄C (reaction-bonded boron carbide) with a density of 2.88 g/cm³. This material is substantially similar to SafeGuard-B4C for mechanical properties with a slightly diff erent chemistry due to it being 3D-printed. Ballistically, it performs very close to SafeGuard-B4C with some exceptions for specific threats. 3D-printing of this material allows it to be made in custom, complex, large, and strongly curved shapes.

SafeGuard-NG

Silicon nitride-bonded silicon carbide

Our SafeGuard-NG is a superior NSiC (silicon nitride-bonded silicon carbide) with a density of 2.85 g/cm³ giving a good cost-/performance ratio for specifi c threats. This specific grade is available in slip-casting technology only. Depending on the specific threat, the ballistic performance of this grade can get adjusted by increasing wall-thickness.

3D-printed Protection

Protective Equipment from the 3D Printer

We redefine the limits

Schunk’s modern manufacturing technology - including 3D printing - enables us to offer a wide variety of geometries for prototypes, low-rate initial production, and full production quantities. Precise cuts as well as additional holes and recesses are made possible by machining. if not able to be implemented during the molding of the ceramic components.

Learn more about our 3D-printed technical ceramics

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