New Generation Surface Treatment Techniques for Enhanced Adhesively Bonded Ceramic-Based Composite Armour Systems

Abstract

Ceramic based armours are of significant importance in ballistic protection systems due to their light weight compared to traditional metallic armour systems. These systems consist of a ceramic strike face bonded to a composite or metallic backing with an adhesive interlayer. In such systems, while the adhesive properties are of great importance, the interface between the adhesive and the materials’ surface must be strengthened to maintain the integrity of the ceramic tiles with improved multi-hit capabilities. In this paper, importance is given to the strengthening of the interfacial bonds by controlling the surface properties using advanced surface treatment techniques leading to enhance ballistic performance of SiC-kevlar armour system. These surfaces are modified by industrially feasible plasma and chemical methods to incorporate large number of high surface energy polar functional groups. These surfaces, bonded with an epoxy and a thermoplastic polyurethane adhesive, showed increased peel strengths and improved performance during multi-hit ballistic impact conditions.