The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 19, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 06, 1998
Kenneth Vecchio, San Diego, CA (US);
Thew Regents of the University of California, Oakland, CA (US);
Abstract
Typically 20-40 films of a tough first metal, normally 0.1-1.0 mm thick films of titanium, nickel, vanadium, and/or steel (iron) and alloys thereof, interleaved with a like number of films of a second metal, normally 0.1-1.0 mm thick films of aluminum or alloys thereof, are pressed together in a stack at less than 6 MPa and normally at various pressures 2-4 MPa while being gradually heated in the presence of atmospheric gases to 600-800° C. over a period of, typically, 10+ hours until the second metal is completely compounded; forming thus a metallic-intermetallic laminate composite material having (i) tough first-metal layers separated by (ii) hard, Vickers microhardness of 400 kg/mm +, intermetallic regions consisting of an intermetallic compound of the first and the second metals. The resulting composite material is inexpensive, lightweight with a density of typically 3 to 4.5 grams/cubic centimeter, and very hard and very tough to serve as, among other applications, lightweight armor. Upon projectile impact (i) the hard intermetallic, ceramic-like, layers are confined by the tough metal layers while (ii) cracking and fracturing is blunted and channeled in directions orthogonal to the axis of impact.