Armour panels

Abstract

Described herein are armour panels that can be used to protect entities such as vehicles, buildings or organisms from overpressure either in the form of an explosion (shockwave) or projectile (bullet, shrapnel etc). In particular, the invention relates to the use of a combination of layers to form a panel with pressure impulse mitigating properties to provide an armour panel which is lightweight, cheap to manufacture and yet strong enough to withstand impact from high velocity ballistics, fragments and the like.

1 . A composite armour comprising at least two armour panels, each panel independently comprising:
 (I) a disruptor particle layer embedded within a hydrogel or an adhesive;   (II) a backing layer;   
       said panels being separated from each other by a gap. 
     
     
         2 . The composite armour of  claim 1  comprising at least two armour panels, each panel independently comprising:
 (I) a ceramic tile layer; 
 (II) a disruptor particle layer embedded within a hydrogel or an adhesive; 
 (III) a backing layer; 
 said panels being separated from each other by a gap. 
 
     
     
         3 . The composite armour of  claim 1  comprising:
 (I) a ceramic tile layer; 
 (II) a disruptor particle layer embedded within an adhesive; and 
 (III) a backing layer. 
 
     
     
         4 . The composite armour of  claim 1  wherein said adhesive is an epoxy resin. 
     
     
         5 . The composite armour of  claim 1  wherein said disruptor particles are ceramic spheres. 
     
     
         6 . The A composite armour of  claim 1  wherein said backing layer is formed from ultra high Mw polyethylene. 
     
     
         7 . The A composite armour of  claim 1  comprising said layers (I) to (Ill) in the order of (I), (II) and (III) outer to inner. 
     
     
         8 . The A composite armour of  claim 1  wherein said armour or armour panel is 10 to 50 mm in thickness. 
     
     
         9 . The composite armour of  claim 2  wherein said gap is an air gap. 
     
     
         10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . An entity selected from the group consisting of a vehicle, helmet or body armour comprising the composite armour of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         12 . An object adapted to carry a composite armour comprising:
 (I) a disruptor particle layer embedded within a hydrogel or an adhesive;   (II) a backing layer;   wherein said composite armour is removably attached to the object.   
     
     
         13 . A vehicle comprising an attachment means to allow attachment and detachment of at least one armour panel of  claim 1  to said vehicle, wherein said vehicle is adapted to carry said composite armour panel in combat and wherein said armour panel is removable from said vehicle when said vehicle is no longer in combat. 
     
     
         14 . A process for armouring a vehicle comprising removably attaching an armour panel of  claim 1  to said vehicle. 
     
     
         15 . A process for preparing an armour comprising arranging disruptor particles in a plurality of layers in a face centered cubic arrangement in an adhesive or hydrogel; and
 compressing the disruptor particles.   
     
     
         16 . The composite armour of  claim 1  wherein said panels are separated by a gap having a thickness of 5 mm to 200 mm. 
     
     
         17 . The composite armour of  claim 16  wherein said gap is an air gap. 
     
     
         18 . The object of  claim 12 , wherein the object is a vehicle.