Surmet Engineering Better Material Solutions

Direct Fire and Blast Protection

Surmet’s ALON® transparent armor is a laminate consisting of ALON® ceramic bonded to polycarbonate and/or glass layers using a thermoplastic polyurethane adhesive film. Excellent transparency is achieved through a combination of precision surface preparation and a tightly controlled curing process. The key to Surmet’s transparent armor is the ALON® strike face. ALON is three times harder than glass which helps to break up and erode the projectile much more efficiently. The resulting projectile debris is captured by the polycarbonate backing thereby defeating even armor piercing projectile threats at a low areal density.

• Superior Ballistic Performance:  Ballistic testing conducted at the Army Research Labs in Aberdeen, MD compared current glass based transparent armor to armor based on three transparent ceramic materials – ALON, Spinel and Sapphire.  Surmet’s ALON ceramic performed 10% better than Spinel armor and 20% better than Sapphire armor.  ALON performed 250% better than conventional glass based armor.
• Increased Window Size:  To provide protection over extra large apertures, Surmet has developed tiled ALON® transparent armor.  The tiled armor employs specially engineered seams that are virtually invisible to the viewer. 
• Excellent Multi-Hit Performance:  Tiled ALON® armor has successfully defended against a variety of multi-hit threats including 30calAPM2 rounds and 50calAPM2 rounds.  In each test, ALON® transparent armor easily defeated the given threat.
• Impressive IED Protection:  ALON® transparent armor has been tested against improvised explosive devices (IED) by the Army Research Lab.  At the conclusion of the testing, Surmet received a letter from the Air Force Research Lab congratulating us on the excellent performance of tiled ALON® armor against IED threats.