About XeraCarb XeraCarb Ltd. is an innovative UK company, founded in 2011, which manufactures high performance ceramics for body armour and other demanding technical applications.XeraCarb materials are suitable for use in hard plate armour solutions suitable for protection against some of the most aggressive armour piercing threats.

XeraBond AP – has significant advantages in terms of price versus performance over traditional materials used for the manufacture of Armour such as Alumina and Sintered Silicon Carbide. XeraBond is lighter than both SSiC and Alumina, it has a better ballistic performance than Alumina and a similar performance to SSiC systems. In addition we are able to manufacture complex shapes and large components whilst still being able to offer value for money.

Our MaterialsXeraCarb – AP combines the properties of a number of different ceramic systems to produce a material with low density, high hardness and strength and good reliability which can be used to form complex shapes in a cost effective manufacturing process. The key attributes are:

• Silicon Carbide (SiC) provides hardness and strength• Additives allow lower temperature processing, gives strength and toughness• Raw material selection provides ability to form complex shapes, hardness and toughness• Density 2.8 g/cm3 lighter armour systems possible (SiC ~ 3.1 g/cm3, Al2O3 ~ 3.9 g/cm3)• Low E-modulus allows impedance matching with metals for vehicle systems etc.• High Weibull Modulus gives consistent results and good reliability

Ballistic TestingXeraCarb AP has been subject to a number of ballistic performance trials in which they have been testedalongside other commercial ceramic armour materials.

V50 Testing (AP threat)V50 testing is used to estimate the velocity at which 50%of projectiles penetrate the target and 50% are stopped.It is normally carried out on a system where the ceramicis backed by a material such as an aramid fibre or a monolithic polymer. When comparing different ceramics they should be compared at the same areal density, which will vary with the ceramic density and backing thickness.

V50 Results for XeraBond – APIn tests against an armour piercing threat (30.06 AP M2, NIJ Level IV) a 10mm plate of XeraCarb AP backed with an aramid material achieved a V50 of 960ms-1 which is a 20% improvement over commonly used 8mm 95% Al2O3 at the same areal density, in which V50 was less than 797ms-1.

Depth of Penetration TestingDepth of Penetration (DOP) Testing is a method of measuring the relative performance of ceramic armour materials and measures the amount of energy removed from the projectile by the ceramic itself. A transparent rod of polycarbonate is used to capture any residual projectile or armour fragments and the depth to which they penetrate is measured. High speed video also captures the event and allows themeasurement of the residual velocity any fragments.XeraCarb – AP has been tested in 3 thicknesses and compared with 2 thicknesses of armour grade sintered silicon carbide and 1 thickness of 95% Al2O3. The projectile threat was 30.06 AP M2 (NIJ Level IV) with an average of 880ms-1. A graph showing the depth of penetration v’s the areal density of the ceramic tile is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2 DOP test rig

Figure 1 Xerabond AP – Helmet Plates

Ceramic Test Plate

Ceramic Test Plate

XERABOND – APCeramic Armour Products

DATA SHEET

XeraCarb Ltd.Unit 15, Darton Business Park,Barnsley Road, Darton, S75 5QX+44 (0)1226 805 061info@xeracarb.com www.xeracarb.com @XeraCarb

The information, recommendations and opinions set forth herein are offered solely for your consideration, inquiry and verification and are not, in part or in total, to be construed as a warranty or representation for which we assume legal responsibility. Nothing contained herein is to be interpreted as authorisation to practice a patented invention without a licence.

Figure 3 Depth of penetration data for 3 thicknesses of XeraCarb materials compared with sintered Silicon Carbide (2 thicknesses) and 95% Al2O3. Each data point represents a single test.

DOP Results - SummaryThe DOP data shows XeraBond AP armour can perform better than 95% Al2O3 while having a significantly lower areal density (~27kg/m2 v’s ~31.5kg/m2). In comparisonto sintered SiC armour XeraBond AP has a very similar performance at the same areal density.

The scatter in the data for each material also shows that XeraBond AP has a very good consistency of performance (above 8mm) whereas 95% Al2O3 shows a very largescatter and SSiC a moderate scatter over 4 shots.

Observations of the nature of the cracking and the size of the ceramic fragments after DOP testing also shows that sintered SiC shatters in to many small fragments whilstXeraBond AP results in much larger fragments similar to that observed for Al2O3 (Figure 3). This suggests that multi-hit performance will be better than that of sintered SiC and similar to that of Al2O3.

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Trend for XCSiC Materials

Ballistic Performance of XeraCarb Armour Materials

Figure 4 Ceramic targets in the DOP test after projectile impact.Note much smaller fragments in the SSiC tile (left) and largerfragments in XeraBond AP and 95% Al2O3

SSiC XeraBond AP Al2O3

We Offer• UK Manufactured Ceramic Hard Armour Plates• Collaboration on design and manufacture of new product• Small scale trial batches to full production runs• Suitable for NIJ Level III and IV and other specifications

XERABOND – APCeramic Armour Products

DATA SHEET (continued)

XeraCarb Ltd.Unit 15, Darton Business Park,Barnsley Road, Darton, S75 5QX+44 (0)1226 805 061info@xeracarb.com www.xeracarb.com @XeraCarb

The information, recommendations and opinions set forth herein are offered solely for your consideration, inquiry and verification and are not, in part or in total, to be construed as a warranty or representation for which we assume legal responsibility. Nothing contained herein is to be interpreted as authorisation to practice a patented invention without a licence.

Results - Summary

XeraCarb armour materials represent a break throughin armour performance. They occupy a position in thePerformance/Cost space for hard armour plate thathas not previously been possibly using more conventional materials.Performance is a combination of the ability to stop armour piercing rounds, the weight and thickness of ceramicrequired to do so, the multi-hit capability and the abilityto form large and complex curved parts.When all these are considered XeraCarb hard armour plates offer a unique combination of performance and cost, alongside UK manufacturing capability and the ability for customers to specify new shapes and designs.

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XeraCarb Hard Armour Plate (XeraBond AP) - Performance/Cost v’s other Armour Materials

We Offer

• UK Manufactured Ceramic Hard Armour Plates• Collaboration on design and manufacture of new product• Small scale trial batches to full production runs• Suitable for NIJ Level III and IV and other specifications

XeraCarb Ltd.Unit 15, Darton Business Park,Barnsley Road, Darton, S75 5QX+44 (0)1226 805 061info@xeracarb.com www.xeracarb.com @XeraCarb

The information, recommendations and opinions set forth herein are offered solely for your consideration, inquiry and verification and are not, in part or in total, to be construed as a warranty or representation for which we assume legal responsibility. Nothing contained herein is to be interpreted as authorisation to practice a patented invention without a licence.

XERABOND – APCeramic Armour Products

DATA SHEET (continued)