Aglifter wrote:Enough bedliner/undercoating will work, but be careful.
(Anecdote from an OLD IPSC shooter.)
When it first got going, one of the usual requirements was to "skip" bullets under/around barricades, to hit targets on the other side. One of the shooters worked at a plant which made undercoating, and had a piece of steel to use, which was covered in a few inches of it - the bullets bounced right back, and hit the shooters - hard enough to bruise, not damage.
I have been working out, but I don't think my chest is quite to the muscle density of steel.
seriously though, I think "bounce" might be a good thing here.
This is evolving as we research and talk. We are gonna test some duct tape and lexan sandwiched as well as duct tape and tile.
I think the final test will be (from the external) duct tape and 4 inter-weaved layers of 1.5" ceramic tiles, followed by 3 layers of lexan interweaved with duct tape, followed by 1/8" steel plate and duct tape, followed by 1/2" layer of bedliner and duct tape.
not including the duct tape - this will be 3/4" of tile, 1/3" of lexan, 1/8 in steel and 1/2 inch of bed liner . . . so with duct tape I would guess about 2.25" thickness
Thought process:
ceramic is stacked like bricks to avoid penetration on a seam but also small tiles so a hit doesn't kill the entire plate and the duct tape will keep the bits somewhat in place and control sharding
The lexan is very good at shrapnel deterrence and does not shatter so will absorb quite a bit of momentum.
The steel plate is strong and should hopefully stop or greatly slow a deformed and tumbling bullet
The bed liner as the final layer would hopefully act as a final barrier against shards and act to spread the impact load over a much larger area.
I think 2.25" is a pretty good thickness. We will have to see what the weight is, but I think this will be quite a bit lighter than a steel plates used in vests now. Those weigh between 8 and 9 lbs per plate at 10x12 - pretty much the same for ceramic plates.
