For the past eight years, the team at Southwest Armor Technologies (SWAT Armor) has been dedicated to redefining armor-piercing solutions through the creation of a brand-new technology for the ballistics world. And now, the company has successfully developed an all-new 100% fully injection-moldable rifle plate solution designed to save more lives.

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“We have been acutely aware of the limitations of today’s armor plate solutions, and we set out to solve a problem and create a new solution that could extend and push the boundaries of protection and safety, while being produced more efficiently with less waste,” said CEO Phil Roux, who has been deeply immersed in the tactical solutions industry for more than 30 years. “In doing so, we have been working with some of the world’s biggest chemical companies to create a new material with advanced aerospace-grade thermoplastics that dramatically reduces blunt trauma and defeats a wide range of ballistic threats, without increasing mass or thickness.”

Never before used in this way, this new technology is set to replace its predecessor. Ceramic-faced solutions have been the industry’s go-to for the past 30 years, but they come with limitations. For example, ceramic-faced plates are fragile and have a significant loss in manufacturing, up to 15 to 20%. They also require a lot of manpower and multiple steps to build a limited 3,000 to 4,000 plates a month.

As inventors, the SWAT Armor team set out to achieve their goal of enhancing safety solutions, going through multiple performance matrices and literally creating testing processes that previously did not exist for this brand-new material.

SWAT Armor’s new method of producing armor completely changes how safety solutions across industries can be perceived. This multi-layer concept can be successfully applied to polyurethane plates to achieve a wide range of armor-piercing threat capability.

SWAT Armor’s 100% fully injection-moldable rifle plate solution drastically reduces the armor-piercing threat capability of a bullet or other projectile by removing the way it penetrates the materials. SWAT Armor designed thermoplastics with specific geometric shapes to turn or alter the access of a projectile as it impacts these advanced thermoplastics. It took SWAT Armor eight years of testing to achieve this level of armor-piercing projectile displacement.

SWAT Armor’s materials can be injection molded on a single machine, producing a mind-blowing 10,500 plates in 30 days, a production capability like nothing the industry has yet seen. Furthermore, this system only requires three to four technicians.

SWAT Armor has successfully combined advanced materials across industries that have never before been part of the ballistics world and has become the bridge between these industries to bring them into the armor industry. The ultimate goal with this level of advanced technology is to be able to save more lives.

Beyond saving the lives of police officers, military personnel and others with wearable armor solutions, Roux has pie-in-the-sky goals for this technology and to change the way multiple industries look at ballistic material. This technology can serve as a solution that allows the thermoplastic materials developed by SWAT Armor to be used for hulls and front fuselages of planes, helicopters and jets instead of aluminum, further enhancing the safety of pilots and passengers alike.

SWAT Armor has already been awarded multiple patents for its axial-displacement matrix technology. The company is currently seeking the best partner to take this technology to market. Meanwhile, Roux and his team are intent on getting back to the drawing board in the lab to continue to push additional boundaries of what their thermoplastic materials can do for the safety of those who serve and protect, and beyond.

For more about SWAT Armor, visit: www.swatarmor.com.