Production of ceramic armor plates

Ceramic armor plates having ballistic protective properties have gained importance in recent years comparing with other non-ceramic ballistic protective materials used in defence industry. Among these materials, boron carbide (B4C) calls more attention, since it is a light and rather hard material. In practice, since none of the materials can stop all bullet types, basic aim should be using suitable materials having superior properties and convenient to human usage. In this study, in order to produce ceramic armor plates from boron carbide, injection molding and slip casting methods were chosen. In injection molding method, boron carbide was mixed with certain amount of wax, injected into molds and dewaxing process was applied. In slip casting method, a mud mixture from boron carbide was obtained which was cast into plaster molds resulting with green plates. These Green plates obtained by either methods were sintered with hot press and their ballistic properties were investigated by bullet shot at charpy harms.