Antiballistic armour plate includes a ceramic body including a hard material, provided, on its inner face, with a back energy-dissipating coating. The ceramic body is monolithic. The constituent material of the ceramic body includes grains of ceramic material having a Vickers hardness that is higher than 15 GPa, and a matrix binding the grains, the matrix including a silicon nitride phase and/or a silicon oxynitride phase, the matrix representing between 5 and 40% by weight of the constituent material of the ceramic body. The maximum equivalent diameter of the grains of ceramic material is smaller than or equal to 800 micrometres. The constituent material of the ceramic body has an open porosity that is higher than 5% and lower than 14%. The metallic silicon content in the material, expressed per mm of thickness of the body, is lower than 0.5% by weight.

A protective shield (100) comprises a body (105) for protecting a user from a projectile or impact, the body comprising a front strike face (110) and an opposing rear face (115); and a connector arrangement (125, 126) provided on the body adapted so as to allow the shield to connect to an adjacent protective shield, wherein the strike face has a perimeter defined by the edges of the strike face; and wherein the connector arrangement is arranged so that an adjacent protective shield can be connected to the connector arrangement with the body of the adjacent protective shield abutting and/or overlapping with the strike face of the protective shield at any point about the perimeter of the strike face.

A ballistic tile for use in an imbricated pattern of like ballistic tiles to achieve coverage of a protected area by the imbricated pattern, while having rounded corners to limit the potential for spalling on ballistic impact. The ballistic tile may include a strike face that is generally undulating to laterally deflect at least a portion of the impact force, and to induce turning of the ballistic projectile on impact to further distribute the impact force. The ballistic tile may also include one or more features on an obverse and reverse side thereof that, when arranged in an imbricated pattern, limit lateral motion of the tiles on ballistic impact, and/or laterally transmit the energy of the projectile for deflection and absorption thereof.

A bullet-resistive or projectile-resistive insert assembly includes at least one anti-ballistic material sheet formed peripherally for receipt in a sheet-covering envelope. An exterior sheet-covering envelope assembly envelops or covers the anti-ballistic material sheet or sheets and includes anterior and posterior envelope material layers. The anterior and posterior envelope material layers are respectively received in anterior and posterior relation relative to the anti-ballistic material thereby sandwiching the same intermediate the enveloping material layers. The anti-ballistic material comprises an outer peripheral stack contour formed to match and mate with an inner peripheral envelope contour of the exterior sheet-covering envelope assembly. The anti-ballistic material includes an anterior stack section, a central stack section, and a posterior stack section. The central stack section has a central stack top-to-bottom length relatively greater in magnitude than an anterior stack top-to-bottom length and a posterior stack top-to-bottom length respectively associated with the anterior and posterior stack sections.

A bullet-resistive or projectile-resistive insert assembly includes at least one anti-ballistic material sheet formed peripherally for receipt in a sheet-covering envelope. An exterior sheet-covering envelope assembly envelops or covers the anti-ballistic material sheet or sheets and includes anterior and posterior envelope material layers. The anterior and posterior envelope material layers are respectively received in anterior and posterior relation relative to the anti-ballistic material thereby sandwiching the same intermediate the enveloping material layers. The anti-ballistic material comprises an outer peripheral stack contour formed to match and mate with an inner peripheral envelope contour of the exterior sheet-covering envelope assembly. The anti-ballistic material includes an anterior stack section, a central stack section, and a posterior stack section. The central stack section has a central stack top-to-bottom length relatively greater in magnitude than an anterior stack top-to-bottom length and a posterior stack top-to-bottom length respectively associated with the anterior and posterior stack sections.

This disclosure is directed to an improved ballistic construct including ballistic concrete cured in a ballistic fiberglass mold, where the ballistic fiberglass mold remains part of the construct after curing. The fiberglass ballistic construct is stronger than concrete alone and does not significantly increase the weight of the construct. The improved construct is useful for firearms training and in the erecting of bulletproof structures which need ballistics protection.

Ballistic and athletic personal protective equipment utilizing rigid panel(s) featuring designs for improved cooling employing “stack effect” airflow in combination with optimized wearer contact surface geometry. Improved ballistic and athletic personal protective equipment designs contain rigid panel(s) for protection of wearer from impacts, ballistic threats and the like. The equipment is provided with spacers arranged to provide a stack effect powered airflow between rigid panel(s) and wearer, cooling the same. The spacers are further designed, dimensioned and arranged to provide optimal heat transfer and mass transfer efficiency from wearer to cooling air within the protective equipment system, providing optimal cooling effects. The system is simple, light, and inexpensive, providing improved wearer comfort and safety from hyperthermia for optimal performance at elevated temperatures.

A blast resistant container includes a rigid outer cylinder, a rigid inner cylinder and at least one pumice brick. The rigid inner cylinder has a longitudinal axis. The at least one pumice brick is within the interior of the rigid inner cylinder.

Processes for making high-performance polyethylene multi-filament yarn are disclosed which include the steps of a) making a solution of ultra-high molar mass polyethylene in a solvent; b) spinning of the solution through a spinplate containing at least 5 spinholes into an air-gap to form fluid filaments, while applying a draw ratio DR.sub.fluid; c) cooling the fluid filaments to form solvent-containing gel filaments; d) removing at least partly the solvent from the filaments; and e) drawing the filaments in at least one step before, during and/or after said solvent removing, while applying a draw ratio DR.sub.solid of at least 4, wherein in step b) each spinhole comprises a contraction zone of specific dimension and a downstream zone of diameter Dn and length Dn with Ln/Dn of from 0 to at most 25, to result in a draw ratio DR.sub.fluid=DR.sub.sp*DR.sub.ag of at least 150, wherein DR.sub.sp is the draw ratio in the spinholes and DR.sub.ag is the draw ratio in the air-gap, with DR.sub.sp being greater than 1 and DR.sub.ag at least 1. High-performance polyethylene multifilament yarn, and semi-finished or end-use products containing said yarn, especially to ropes and ballistic-resistant composites, are also disclosed.

A multilayer composite includes adjacent filler layers having a filler material dispersed within a first polymeric matrix and an intervening-layer disposed between the adjacent filler layers. The intervening-layer comprises nanoplatelets embedded within a second polymeric matrix and are aligned substantially parallel to the adjacent filler layers. The intervening-layer is configured to fail upon application of a force to the multilayer composite that is greater than or equal to a predetermined force threshold.