First up, the .40 cal tests.
Thickness is least to greatest, least being the bottom piece.


Thin Sample.


Mid Sample.


Thick Sample.


Back of all of the .40 samples.


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Second, the .357 Samples.
Thickness is least to greatest, least being the bottom piece.


Thin Sample.


Mid Sample.


Thick Sample.


Close up of the back of the thick .357 sample.


Back of all the .357 Samples.


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And last, the 9mm Samples.
Thickness is least to greatest, least being the bottom piece.


Thin Sample.


Mid Sample.


Thick Sample.


Thick Sample plus sample debris.


Thick Sample with debris fitted back to sample.


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And there you have it folks.
Samples remains are in the mail and returning to Vic.

Thanks a LOT for coming through with this, more samples will be on the way Wed. Some of those will stop rounds, but the failures actually tell me more than the successes.

When I get these back I will cut them crossways through the hole and determine what contribution the mesh, plastic, and bonding made in mitigation of the force.

Your samples are coming back Via Fedex, and will arrive Wednesday at the return address you specified.

Mythbusters shows that tiling (like on the bathroom floor) can be surprising good for stopping bullets. Not exactly quiet, though.

Great experiment and best of luck in building your perfect protection suit.

The perfect protection would be not needing it in the first place.

Ceramics are good for ballistics because they have the tendency to also destroy the bullet in addition to stopping it. Only problem is that most of them are 1 use deals, meaning they cant take multiple hits without degrading rapidly.

I'm curious to see how the 1/2" UHMWPE holds up. In a previous test the shot was too close to the edge exited from the side. The same thickiness of 1/2" VHMWPE (a lower grade, but with slightly different properties) stopped the round by deforming around it, indicating it was stressing a far larger portion of the sample than the round struck, which is exactly what needs to happen.

I'll be cutting more of this stock tommorow.

It is like if Justin Hammer and Tony Stark were in an alternate universe where they went into business together to help one another fashion amazing protection instead of weapons.

In summary, I find this to be awesome. Just my two cents.

Iron Man 2 spoiler alert:







I'm so glad they didn't kill off Hammer in the movie, he was one of the funniest movie villains ever.

"I'll have you know, that test pilot SURVIVED!" - Justin Hammer

Yea, but I hate how they made him a moron instead of something that would actually challenge Iron Man.

he wasnt a moron, he was just an asshole. im sure he'll come back and challenge tony.

back on topic. I cant wait to see what the next step in this projects evolution turns out to be.

Just strap a manhole cover to your chest and call it good.

OK, more samples of base materials on the way.

3 each of 1/2" VHMWPE, 3/4" VHMWPE, 1/2" polycarbonate, and 1/2" UHMWPE to be subjected to .357, .40 cal, and 9mm.

I'm expecting the 3/4" VHMWPE to be able to stop the handgun rounds. The 1/2" VHMWPE might even do so, but the test with the hv .22 was pretty close to failure, but the velocity was much higher than most handgun rounds, which is the determining factor in penetration, not the total kinetic energy, so we'll just have to see.

The 1/2 polycarbonate is probably going to fail, commercial applications use it in at least 1-1/4" thickness for ballistic resistance, but the usual application is vehicle windows where level IV resistance is required.

The 1/2" UHMWPE is supposed to be much stronger than the VHMWPE, but the only data I have from a sample of this failed when the shot was too close to the edge and exited from the edge. Most commercial armor will fail when shot closer to 1" from the edge. I don't know what to expect from this, but it should perform much better than the VHMWPE, which I was quite pleased with.

Will be on the lookout for the package.

Have you received the package that I sent Fedex to you?

No fedex yet, but then my apartment manager can be a bit lax about calling when a package shows up.

Received the samples, and the results do indeed look promising.

Here is an example of the 3/8" sample fired on with .357

The entry is about 8mm, but the exit 'wound' is 40mm. This is 25x the surface area of the original impact. This is spreading the force out through the material instead of allowing it to pass through. I just need to find better materials.

Congrats on this very interesting thread. I am an avid fan of the both of you.
It is nice to see the both of you work on something and show the other RLSH's out there your results.
Very educational...

Thanks

This is the coolest thing I've seen all day.

Just got the next set of samples.
Will be putting bullets into them ASAP.

I really wanted to include some 1/4" VHMWPE in there, but didn't have any. While I know it is going to fail, I'm curious as to how it would begin to dissipate an initial penetration. Hopefully the 1/2" will tell the story.

Further examination of the laminated samples suggests that the mesh layers were pointless during the first 1/4" of penetration, the PSI was just too high for that light of gauge of mild steel to have any effect at all. An initial layer of maybe 22 gauge steel (expanded metal grating?) might have a significant enough effect. I think a return to basics such as the latest set of samples will suggest a more effective approach.