Military Applications for Thermoplastics

Manufacturers and designers with an interest in the defense market should attend Shawn Walsh’s education session called Development of Mass Efficient Warfighter Materials at COMPOSITES+POLYCON.

Walsh, who works at the Army Research Lab, headquartered in Adelphi, Md., will present a case study demonstrating how thermoplastics can be used in military applications, specifically helmet manufacturing. “What we quickly identified as the bottleneck wasn’t the material availability or the quality of the material,” Walsh says. “The missing link was twofold: a reliable thermoforming process specific to the ballistic thermoplastic materials and efficient preforming techniques to maximize performance and minimize touch labor and waste.”

The project resulted in thermoplastic-based helmets with a minimum 20 percent increase in ballistic mass efficiency. “The key is to do more with less,” Walsh says. “We’re always limited by the weight we can put on the soldier. We never want to encumber them more than we have to.”

Part of Walsh’s presentation will focus on how the military partners with industry to produce superior performing products. Formal partnerships are often facilitated through the Department of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program (ManTech). Large and small companies work through the program to solve manufacturing and design challenges that might otherwise not be commercially viable. “Some of these smaller companies are more aggressive and have novel approaches to thermoplastic forming,” Walsh says.

This session takes place Friday, Jan. 16 from 11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. For more information, click here.