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Tata Steel's Lightweight Armour Steel Can Take A Punch
Tata Steel has received orders for more than 200 samples of its perforated
armour steel, which has been exported to a number of countries worldwide
including Germany, France, the USA and India. This revolutionary armour steel,
formerly known as Super Bainite, has also undergone a number of design
improvements and has taken on a new brand name, PAVISE SBS 600P.
The company will be exhibiting its PAVISE product at next week's DSEI show,
the world-leading defence and security event, which runs from 10-13
September at the ExCel London exhibition centre.
PAVISE, which provides an efficient and cost-effective armouring solution for
military vehicles, as well as for defended infrastructure such as watch towers
or sangars, has now been tested up to STANAG Level 4 to create armour
capable of resisting both small arms and heavy machine gun fire with
armour-piercing projectiles.
The ballistic performance of PAVISE - the way it deals with the effect of
projectiles - is at least twice that of conventional rolled homogenous steel
armour. The perforated design of the steel creates a large number of edges
which disrupt the path of incoming projectiles, significantly reducing their
potency.
Dr Henrik Adam, Tata Steel's Chief Commercial Officer in Europe, said: "Tata
Steel has spent significant effort developing this unique product and we are
delighted with its performance. As a company we are well positioned to
support the market, both in the UK and the wider European markets, and
we look forward to receiving the feedback of all the companies currently
testing PAVISE."
A challenge Tata Steel has addressed and overcome since the product's
launch in 2011 is how to create the perforations in a cost-efficient way.
The former production route involved drilling round holes into hard armour
steel, which was difficult and expensive. By developing a process to
mechanically punch the metal before the steel is hardened, and by making
the holes smaller and narrower, Tata Steel has managed to reduce the cost
of the perforation process ten-fold. It is also now possible to bend the steel
into tight angles in the perforated condition, before hardening to ultra-high
levels of hardness.
One effect of the perforations is that the armour becomes almost transparent
at a distance of more than a few metres, due to the size and spacing of the
holes - a principle known as the Raleigh Criterion. This means the existing
camouflage of the vehicle is not compromised when the sections of PAVISE
are added.
Dr Paul Davies, product marketing manager for PAVISE at Tata Steel
said: "PAVISE offers increased design flexibility to achieve protection against
a wide range of threats, without compromising weight or modular performance.
"The number of samples that are already in the field being tested, and
the customers that have taken an interest in using them, demonstrate
the massive potential this product has for armoured-vehicle programmes."
Gus King, managing director of Permali Gloucester Ltd, a world leader in
the manufacture of composite materials for the defence industry, said:
"As part of a complete appliqué armour system we have found PAVISE
offers unique benefits in particular areas. Tata Steel can achieve impressive
lead times which match our composite materials and therefore allow fast
track design of new solutions."
Paul Davies will be available at DSEI on the Tata Steel stand, N9-498 in
the Land Zone, for any enquiries about the company's defence products,
including PAVISE SBS 600P.
Defence world
Tata Steel has received orders for more than 200 samples of its perforated
armour steel, which has been exported to a number of countries worldwide
including Germany, France, the USA and India. This revolutionary armour steel,
formerly known as Super Bainite, has also undergone a number of design
improvements and has taken on a new brand name, PAVISE SBS 600P.
The company will be exhibiting its PAVISE product at next week's DSEI show,
the world-leading defence and security event, which runs from 10-13
September at the ExCel London exhibition centre.
PAVISE, which provides an efficient and cost-effective armouring solution for
military vehicles, as well as for defended infrastructure such as watch towers
or sangars, has now been tested up to STANAG Level 4 to create armour
capable of resisting both small arms and heavy machine gun fire with
armour-piercing projectiles.
The ballistic performance of PAVISE - the way it deals with the effect of
projectiles - is at least twice that of conventional rolled homogenous steel
armour. The perforated design of the steel creates a large number of edges
which disrupt the path of incoming projectiles, significantly reducing their
potency.
Dr Henrik Adam, Tata Steel's Chief Commercial Officer in Europe, said: "Tata
Steel has spent significant effort developing this unique product and we are
delighted with its performance. As a company we are well positioned to
support the market, both in the UK and the wider European markets, and
we look forward to receiving the feedback of all the companies currently
testing PAVISE."
A challenge Tata Steel has addressed and overcome since the product's
launch in 2011 is how to create the perforations in a cost-efficient way.
The former production route involved drilling round holes into hard armour
steel, which was difficult and expensive. By developing a process to
mechanically punch the metal before the steel is hardened, and by making
the holes smaller and narrower, Tata Steel has managed to reduce the cost
of the perforation process ten-fold. It is also now possible to bend the steel
into tight angles in the perforated condition, before hardening to ultra-high
levels of hardness.
One effect of the perforations is that the armour becomes almost transparent
at a distance of more than a few metres, due to the size and spacing of the
holes - a principle known as the Raleigh Criterion. This means the existing
camouflage of the vehicle is not compromised when the sections of PAVISE
are added.
Dr Paul Davies, product marketing manager for PAVISE at Tata Steel
said: "PAVISE offers increased design flexibility to achieve protection against
a wide range of threats, without compromising weight or modular performance.
"The number of samples that are already in the field being tested, and
the customers that have taken an interest in using them, demonstrate
the massive potential this product has for armoured-vehicle programmes."
Gus King, managing director of Permali Gloucester Ltd, a world leader in
the manufacture of composite materials for the defence industry, said:
"As part of a complete appliqué armour system we have found PAVISE
offers unique benefits in particular areas. Tata Steel can achieve impressive
lead times which match our composite materials and therefore allow fast
track design of new solutions."
Paul Davies will be available at DSEI on the Tata Steel stand, N9-498 in
the Land Zone, for any enquiries about the company's defence products,
including PAVISE SBS 600P.
Defence world