GCL Ballistic Armour

 

020514-M-7364D-002 Ban Chan Khrem, Thailand (May 14, 2002) — Marines assigned to Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment (BLT 3/5), the ground combat element of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC), home based in Okinawa, Japan, conduct a live fire and maneuver exercise during Exercise Cobra Gold 2002. Cobra Gold 2002 is the 21st U.S. Pacific Command exercise conducted in Thailand demonstrating the ability of U.S. Forces to deploy rapidly and conduct joint-combined operations with the Thai and Singapore armed forces. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Stephen D’Alessio. (RELEASED)

One of the main product applications for the GCL graphene/aerogel composite is ballistic armour – comprised of several layers of graphene and aerogel. An example of this is in the figure below.

In contrast to a graphene-only armour, we think that a graphene/aerogel composite would show significantly less distortion and damage when hit by a bullet. The reason for this is force dispersion; we think that the aerogel’s dendritic nano-structures would quickly dissipate the direct force from the impact, whilst the strong, impermeable graphene layers would help the graphene/aerogel composite to maintain its structural integrity. Thus, the transmitted force would lessen with each successive layer of graphene, and more of the graphene/aerogel composite would remain intact versus either the graphene- or aerogel-only armours.

A sample of our GCL graphene/aerogel composite is here:

… and here:

Note also that although the GCL graphene/aerogel composite would still be extremely thin, its composite layers would be much thicker than the graphene-only layers. This will be extremely important in terms of ease (and cost) of production.

For example, in our prototypes, 40 layers of the GCL graphene/aerogel composite would be roughly 4mm thick – whereas with the graphene-only armour we would estimate that roughly 24 million layers would be needed to make a 4mm thick layer – with the risk that those 24 million layers would turn into a lump of graphite. With our GCL composite, this risk is minimal because the alternating aerogel layers insulate the graphene sheets from contacting each other.

Another key difference between the GCL graphene/aerogel composite armour and a graphene-only armour is weight – because aerogel is over 98% air, we estimate that a layer (or slice) of it would be roughly 1/40th the weight of a similarly thick layer of graphene. And because of the superior shock dispersion ability of the GCL graphene/aerogel composite, we expect that it would be as strong or stronger than graphene-only armour.

The global ballistic protection market (body armour and vehicle armour) was valued at $7.91 billion (£5.5bn) in 2013 and is expected to reach $11.03 billion (£7.6bn) by the end of 2020, growing at 5% per annum. In a separate study, the cumulative value of the global body armour and personal protection equipment market was expected to reach $19.4 billion (£13bn) by the end of 2022, according to “The Global Body Armor and Personal Protection Market 2012-2022,” a study from Market Publishers Ltd. The study expects that North America, followed by Europe and the Asia-Pacific region will dominate the market. Key players in the market are Teijin Limited (Japan), Honeywell International (US), BAE systems (UK), Royal TenCate Corporate EMEA (Netherlands), and E.L. duPont de Nemours & Co. (France).

We believe that if the GCL graphene/aerogel composite armour can deliver the performance outlined, and if production costs are reasonable, this could capture a significant share of this market relatively quickly.

Bulletproof cling film

One of our end-product goals for GCL graphene/aerogel ballistic armour is to “nano-print” it on a roll of plastic film. This “bulletproof cling film” could then be used to protect virtually any object, building, vehicle or aircraft – and it would be ideally suited for use in combat situations.