What most armor manufacturers aren't telling you? AR500 Armor

hey guys toddler again with a are from pajama and today I am back to talk about something a lot of armor manufacturers don't really make public they don't tell you and it's not that a lot of them aren't trying to give you the information it's just the nature of making armor it is important to understand there are different types of armor from steel ceramic composite and polyethylene for reason they all have up sides and they all have downsides so in this video I'm gonna tell you some manufacturer perspective positions on what are the differences between these systems and what you probably don't know when you're shopping for body armor so the first thing I'm gonna tell you is when you manufacture we'll start with a ceramic level for armor for reference this is a level 3 polyethylene plate this is level 4 ceramic and this is level 3 + which falls right in between level 3 and level 4 in terms of what it's capable of feeding now they all have different price points different weights different thicknesses we're not gonna get into that into this video we're going to get into what they are designed to stop and the design intention and the manufacturing process that goes behind it so what I want to say is for NIJ standards currently with oh six and soon to translate into oh seven as that goes live there is something called an edge shot there's an edge shot criteria for performance of armor what that means is when your armor takes a shot around the perimeter what depth is considered an edge shot and how will your armor perform now the interesting thing that you probably don't know is there is an edge shot zone that is acceptable for your armor to perform in so for reference all of these are 10 by 12 armor systems they are all 10 by 12 shooters cuts or swimmers cut in this variation now most manufacturers according to oh six standards if they adhere to that some do and some doubt so pay attention to who you purchase from make sure it's a reputable company first and foremost but they have up to a two inch allowance on an edge shot for the armor to perform so meaning two inches from the edge on your body armor is not a ballistically rated zone or up to two inch some manufacturers make better products some do not some meet the bare minimum some exceed the minimum now the reason I'm saying this is because if you have a 10 by 12 plate your effective ballistic capable zone for its threat rating could be up to two inches from the perimeter essentially rendering a 10 by 12 piece of armor an 8 by 10 equivalent in terms of actual ballistic protection now that is the most common in ceramic composite level 4 and polyethylene level 3 what I do want to note is steel armor just like our militia helmets and another huge benefit of running steel is you get full edge to edge protection across the entire perimeter of the plate now edge shots and body armor are not good right if you take an edge shot on body armor you're really pushing the limits whether the round is contained or not whether an angles involved is an entirely different scenario and a topic we'll cover in a future video but it is important to note your ballistically capable zone on a ceramic composite plate or polyethylene plate is likely much reduced depending on the manufacturer if they follow the guidelines and take the maximum allowance of a two inch edge shot placement for a ballistic capable zone whereas all of our steel armor is edge to edge protection and ballistically capable you can hit around on the edge and on a perfectly clean flat perpendicular plane it will defeat the round on the edge ceramic and polyethylene armor may not and that's due to the design so when you're shopping for armor you're looking at all it's your budget level force or polyethylenes and you're trying to save a buck understand you're probably sacrificing edge performance now what a lot of companies they'll do is they'll have a what looks like a 10 by 12 plate but it'll be slightly undersized in terms of the ceramic strike face and the backer and it will have some sort of foam around the perimeter though they can get away with that because it is still a 10 by 12 plate on its surface and it's covered up but they are playing within the guidelines of what certification they're going for and I'm not calling anybody out all ceramic a polyethylene it's the nature of using those materials in the product now when you talk a steel plate we have a monolithic system that is formed and cured and treated into a ballistically capable piece all inclusive edge to edge when you're talking polyethylene for example what you're doing is adhering multiple layers of polyethylene putting it in a press combining the materials and you have layers and layers now it doesn't create a model as a panel so when you have layers and layers and it takes around what happens that layers will be laminate not only does that cause increase back face deformation it also prevents edge shop performance because of the delamination the delamination is part of how it stops the round and part of how it mitigates the energy but it has a seriously detrimental effect on the edge because there isn't room for the laminate what happens is the edge material will roll in and it requires a certain amount of material to delaminate and roll in to catch the round the same goes with ceramic so ceramic in composite Armour which makes level four is generally consists of a ceramic strike face and a polyethylene or fiberglass backer the backer has the same consequences as a purely polyethylene plate to wear on an edge shot it requires it to roll up ceramic is closer to steel in terms of its chemical makeup but it is very hard and brittle that's why ceramic is always an in conjunction system so when you talks around the Carver it's not just ceramic it is always a ceramic composite or ceramic and fiberglass build generally speaking so unimpaired the ceramic and it's intended to stop in the composite backer again being PE or fiberglass on steel we don't have those delamination issues we don't have the edge shot criteria to take into account because it is a monolithic design and for all of our steel threat levels we use a proprietary formula to achieve the threat level we do not all steel is created equal and there are significant performance differences in types of steel and armor not all Steel's target steel mild there's a tons of different steel and it's easy to generalize the category being a monolithic panel whereas polyethylene and ceramics are usually a multi-component system or a bunch of layers that are pressed together to try to mimic monolithic designs but they are there layer designs with adhesive and pressing techniques so on the edge shot topic the two inch from the edge perimeter is applicable to body armor with a single threat level rating or a single threat I do want to know there is an allowance in the standard for up to a three inch shot placement from the perimeter which would reduce the ballistic area even more on armor that is capable of defeating multiple threats I encourage you to do your research and pay attention to where you purchase from and see if the manufacturer is putting that information out there for you audits performance regardless of if you purchased through us or not we want you to make an educated decision on buying body armor to get the best body armor that will perform for what you need a lot of guys gravitate towards level 4 being the best I would disagree smile before is fantastic but it might not be the best for you my argument there is 30 out 6m to a P if you're using it for home defense it's a really a common threat do you really need to pay the money and take the sacrifices ceramic has to defeat 30 out 6m to AP such as you lose them will buy a capability you have a much thicker plate so again not knocking level 4 fantastic armor but higher isn't always better really identifying why you want to own body armor should be the criteria for left throughout level and type of armor you choose so the next thing I want to talk about our single hit rated plates and multi a rated place generally speaking when you're talking level 3 and 3 plus it is rated to 6 shots of its maximum performing round that may change between types of armor as you guys know our steel armor is the most multi hit capable armor on the market and you've seen YouTube videos of for example our level 3 plate defeating up to 90 rounds or so double-edged for ranch has a video highly recommend you go check it out of m855 penetrators on our standard level 3 plate that blows anything out of water most armor is not that multi capable nor is it realistic to need to stop that many rounds so generally speaking it is rated within a standard and that standard is usually 6 rounds when you're talking level 4 on a 30 out 6 m2 AP or armor-piercing round it is generally rated to one round now why am I talking about multi incapabilities and single hit capabilities there is a shot placement criteria for performance on multi hit rated body armor generally speaking on a polyethylene and ceramic system when you shoot it once entered as a multi hit rated panel within its threat rating the armor can perform up to a maximum allowance of two inches between shot placement to be considered an effective and ballistically rated zone within shot placement so you shoot one up top and one 1/2 inch below on most armor manufacturers that is well below what they build the armor for they generally build it with two it shot placement in mind now we do the same and that's what we test to on our steel but it is far more capable and the reason when you can tell the difference is when you're looking at armor manufacturers and when they show you a test video pay attention to their shot placement if they have a really big panel and their spacing them six seven eight inches apart there might be a reason for that if they are stacking the rounds they probably won't do that because it will penetrate the material if you look at some of our test videos you know we space reasonably and a lot of that has to do with the fragmentation coating but the reality is we have plenty of test videos with shop placement in a very tight group the unique thing about a monolithic panel and steel is when you take around here the only thing that becomes compromised the steel does become work harden it does compromise and you will eventually blow through if you keep stacking rounds so back face deformation you want to pay attention to how that works and what the armor is capable of doing still is the best of mitigating back face deformation being a monolithic design it deforms much less then ceramic composite or polyethylene now I am Pro steel obviously a lot of guys aren't and there are other benefits to running systems but I'm just kind of giving you the facts from a manufacturer's perspective on things that a lot of guys won't tell you last thing I want to touch on that is probably not common knowledge or threat levels and types of rounds there are some exceptions and generally speaking steel gives way to most of those exceptions because it is good performing all around being a monolithic design now I'm gonna use level 3 and I'm gonna talk about green tip 5 5 6 7 8 5 5 penetrators for a second now there is a mild penetrator in an m855 it is not a longer piercing round but it is a barrier penetrating round it's a 62-grain 5 5 6 green tip with a core that is designed to penetrate light barriers and brush let's just car doors and other things brush and shrubbery now polyethylene level 3 armor generally speaking unless it is an in construction design with a ceramic strike face which would normally make it level 3 plus a special threat tested rating for m855 level 3 as it is will not defeat m855 green tip despite it being rubble that doesn't seem to be called common knowledge and the reason is while polyethylene is a good armor system it it is ultra lightweight the trade-off and the caveat there is it's an ultra thick panel and that's that's part of the reason it's so light is that it's just polyethylene layers built up but it is not capable of defeating rounds with penetrators even mild penetrators that includes some 7.62 by 39 surplus rounds that if you hold a magnet to it it has a hardened steel core or even a mildly hardened steel core that'll blow right through polyethylene armor it is not designed to stop it unless it is special threat tested to do so with steel that is different our level 3 steel body armor will defeat velocity up to 27 80 feet per second up to 308 in addition it will defeat rounds what's mild steel core penetrator so not armor-piercing rounds but rounds with barrier penetrators so that's an important distinction when choosing level 3 polyethylene and level 3 steel one will not defeat penetrators but you get the benefit of having an ultra light platform at the cost of it being a thicker and much more expensive where Steel is gonna be heavier than polyethylene but it will give you more multi hit capability edge that edge to edge performance of the plate and much improved multi capabilities in terms of shot placement and what the panel can actually take but level four that's not necessarily an issue because it's threat level is so high and it is an in conjunction system with a true hard strike face and a composite backer so this will generally stop anything with a penetrator but it is also to stop a single round of 30 out 6 m2 AP which is another creasing around so we hope that helps you guys make an educated decision on buying body armor whether it's through us or not but we wanted you to understand the differences if you guys have questions or concerns please let us know we want to make sure you get body armor that works for you don't forget to Like share and subscribe as you guys know social media is not in the favor of grow to a companies we don't really get algorithm though so if you want to stay up-to-date make sure you get on our mailing list for new product launches promos and things me I'm coming on in addition to liking sharing and following us on social media thank you guys again

Channel: AR500 Armor®

Views: 107,193

Rating: 4.8997626 out of 5

Keywords: plate carriers, steel plates, ceramic plates, PE plates, plate carrier shooting tests, body armor, bullett proof vests, bullet proof plates, edge shot criteria, Single hit rated plates, multiple hit rated plates, Level III plates, Level IV plates, Level III plus plates

Id: 9xuc9HX0ZpI

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020