Plastic armor ( eng. Plastic armor , also known as plastic protection ) is a previously used type of armor for various vehicles. It was originally developed for merchant ships by from the British Admiralty in 1940. It consisted of gravel of a certain size as a filler in a matrix of bitumen , and in fact was a material similar to asphalt concrete . Original composition: 50% pure granite half an inch , 43% limestone and 7% bitumen. Usually the armor layer was two inches thick and was supplemented with a steel plate half an inch thick.
Terrell coined the term "plastic armor" for his invention, partly because he was plastic (viscous), and also because he believed that this term could be misleading the enemy's intelligence services. They could assume that the product was made of synthetic wood plastics available at that time.
Plastic armor was usually used as ersatz armor and was applied by in-situ casting to existing ship structures that could be hit by enemy machine gun fire. Such ersatz armor was poured in a layer about two inches thick or formed from the same thickness of a layer deposited on a steel plate half an inch thick, for installation as a shield shield of guns and the like. Plastic armor replaced the practice of using another variant of armor ersatz β concrete slabs, which were expected to provide protection similar to the practice of using concrete for ground pillboxes , but which were prone to cracking and destruction when they were hit by armor piercing bullets. The plastic armor was very effective in protecting against armor-piercing bullets, because very hard aggregate particles deflected and deformed the bullets, which were then stuck in the bitumen without piercing the steel backing plate. Plastic armor can be molded in place by pouring thinned material into a cavity formed by a steel base plate and temporary wooden formwork. Road-building firms were engaged in the manufacture of armor, and production was carried out similarly to the practice of building pavements. The organization of the booking process was carried out by naval officers in key ports. Development and testing continued. In the end, the bitumen of the original composition was replaced by a less expensive resin, and granite was replaced by flint gravel. In other parts of the world for the manufacture of armor used any available stone.
Content
American experiments
In August 1943, American experiments on cumulative charge protection began, and by October of the same year it was discovered that plastic armor was much lighter than the steel armor needed for the same degree of protection. This armor, manufactured by Flintkote, was improved by conducting a series of tests, and the modified armor of pure quartz gravel in mastic of resin and wood flour was designated "HCR2". Tests were also conducted to test the ability of plastic armor to protect ships from torpedoes with shaped charges, but this project was abandoned due to the low probability that this weapon would become a serious threat and further developments in the field of armored combat vehicles were given priority.
The initial plan to protect the tank with plastic armor was to manufacture small-sized steel panels filled with HCR2 (in order to reduce the area damaged by a single shell) that could be attached to the Sherman M4 tank and replaced in case of damage. To protect against the most powerful German cumulative Panzerfaust grenade launcher, the M4 required eight to twelve tons of plastic armor, while a more powerful booking of the M26 Pershing tank meant that it only needed 7.1 tons of additional protection equal to the armor quality of the tank. M4 with 11.7 tons of plastic protection. This increased the weight for the M4 tank by 34%, but only by 16% for the M26, and the panel for the M26 turret was only 10 3/4 inches thick compared to 13 3/4 inches for the M4. New panels were made of welded steel armor half an inch thick on the sides and three-quarters of an inch thick along the edges, but their design was flawed at the end of World War II. As a result of the increase in tank losses due to cumulative weapons, another type of panels was developed that could go into production in just a few weeks. This new type of panel used 1.5 inch mild steel instead of armor steel, and had a two-inch aluminum alloy plate for a frame faceplate for reinforcement. One set of this armor was completed and tested immediately after the end of the Second World War and was considered quite satisfactory, although to a lesser extent than the same panels of armor steel.
See also
- Concrete armor
- Spaced booking scheme
Links
- The Story of Plastic Armor . Caird Publications. The appeal date is December 27, 2012.
- Chapters 5-7 of the Edward Terrell book . Admiralty Brief (Part 1) - London, 1958 (Eng.)
- David Edgerton, Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War , 2011, pp. 262β263
- Azriel Lorber, Misguided Weapons: Technological Failure and Surprise on the Battlefield , 2002, ISBN 1612342116 , page 125 "Plastic Armor" (eng.)