Georgia Patent of the Month – July 2024
Verco Materials, LLC has made a significant breakthrough in the design of ceramic tiles for personal armor. The company had their start as a spin-off from the Georgia Institute of Technology using high-performance boron carbide technology. With this unique material and years of R&D, Verco Materials has developed a new level of armored protection to keep US law enforcement safe in gunfire.
The newly patented and innovative tile comprises an obverse face, a reverse face, and an endless edge defined by multiple peripheral boundaries connected by curved sections. This unique design features a strike face region with a Y-shaped raised portion and corresponding Y-shaped depression on the reverse face, ensuring seamless integration and enhanced protection. It’s this complex but specific design that achieves a high degree of protection against rifle rounds. It also allows the armor to follow the curvature of the human body, ensuring there is no compromise to movement or protection.
What sets these tiles apart is their imbricated arrangement, where each tile’s first and second regions overlap with the corresponding regions of adjacent tiles, creating a robust and flexible armor system. The downward slope of these regions allows the assembly to follow curved contours, providing comprehensive coverage without compromising flexibility or mobility. This design is particularly beneficial for areas of the body with complex curves, such as the transition from the front torso to the side torso and the upper arms.
The tiles, made from sintered boron carbide, are optimized for weight reduction without sacrificing ballistic effectiveness. The Y-shaped raised portion is strategically elevated to intercept projectiles traveling at oblique angles, protecting seams where tiles overlap. This feature, combined with a more uniform thickness and reduced overlap, results in a lighter yet equally protective armor.
Verco Materials’ innovative design not only meets but exceeds the ballistic performance of previous models. Tests demonstrated that a 3.9 lb torso panel made with these tiles provided the same level of protection as a 4.9 lb panel of the prior art, achieving remarkable weight savings while maintaining ballistic integrity. This advancement in ceramic tile design for armor applications marks a significant step forward in personal protection, offering enhanced safety, reduced fatigue, and improved performance for users in high-risk environments.
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