A question often posed by vehicle armourers is why they shouldn’t just use thicker steel rather than apply the XPT material to their protective system. These tests set out to answer that question.
The existing test data to support the case for XPT was gathered during customer projects and so was proprietary. What was needed was a clear demonstration that could be openly discussed and made freely available.
Using the facilities and test team at Ordnance Test Solutions, a series of explosive tests was performed to compare plain 8mm thick armour steel structures against 4mm thick armour steel with a 20mm thick XPT facing. These material thicknesses resulted in weight-matched structures making it easier to compare material performance.
This simple, generic structure also served to remove a lot of the complexities that would arise using actual wheel arch sections.
For the onset of weld cracking the XPT faced material had a limit of 1.66 higher than the plain steel and for failure of the welds this performance difference had increased to a factor of 1.75. These results exceeded expectations and clearly demonstrate that the application of XPT is advantageous compared to just using thicker steel for such confined conditions.
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