Two of the Pittsburgh region's largest corporations are using steel, glass and plastics to save soldiers' lives by improving the armor and antiballistic capabilities of the military vehicles that carry them into combat.
PPG Industries Inc. is developing the next generation of "transparent armor," also known as ballistic-resistant windows, while Allegheny Technologies Inc. makes a high-hard armor steel at its Washington plant for use in the framework that holds the transparent armor front and side windows for a light armored vehicle.
"The threat (to soldiers) has been increasing, and we need new technology to respond to the threat," Mehran Arbab, director of glass research and development, said Friday at the PPG Glass Technology Center in Harmar.
PPG yesterday received $1.2 million from the Defense Department to develop the transparent armor for use in armored vehicles known as the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected and the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle. PPG previously received an $800,000 grant from an Army research laboratory to do similar work, so the new grant is a continuation of that effort, Arbab said.
The challenge is to develop an armored window that will stop fragments from blasts and bullets that are larger and faster, that can withstand multiple hits, is lighter and keeps the vehicle's interior cooler by reducing the amount of solar heat that warms the inside. Currently, each armored front window, or portal, weighs about 125 pounds.
The federal funding will add three or four jobs at the technology center, where about 300 people work.
"We're trying to make it as ballistic-resistant as possible," said George Goodwin, senior research assistant, as he stood next to a 3 1/2-inch thick test piece of transparent armor comprised of several alternating layers of glass, plastic and polycarbonate. That glass was shattered by a piece of fragment similar to shrapnel created by an improvised explosive device. The model was a success, because the fragment did not exit the glass, Goodwin said.
Researchers are using glass that is produced at PPG's plant in Carlisle, and the ballistic-resistant windows are assembled at a PPG plant in California, Arbab said. The transparent armor typically is sold to AM General LLC of South Bend, Ind., which makes the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle.
In the case of Stryker light armored vehicles, Allegheny Technologies said its 500-MIL, a high armor steel, is being used by Carapace Armored Technology of Fayetteville, N.C. The steel is part of the mounting framework holding the transparent armor in add-on kits for the Stryker vehicles. It's the first use of the 500-MIL armor steel on an older vehicle system, Allegheny Technologies has said.
The new high-armor steel is easier to fabricate than other high-armor steel, which makes it good for use in such framework, ATI spokesman Dan Greenfield said.
"It protects against such threats as armor-piercing rounds, while also offering good blast-resistant properties," ATI said.
While this is the first application for the new high-armor steel, Greenfield said it is being looked at for other applications where armor is needed. The steel can be installed on above-deck structures on ships, and even aboard planes, by using a lighter-weight perforated version.
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