Armour plate from VCM

What are claimed to be the lightest composite armour plates on the market have been produced with the help of a new highly-advanced computer modelling program that works like finite element analysis, but inversely.

, a US manufacturer of composite armour products, has patented the program, called Volumetrically Controlled Manufacture (VCM) for rapid design and manufacturing of advanced composite materials. The technology has already caught the attention of top government clients.

The company recently used VCM to develop 1.5kg composite armour plates, which are claimed to be the lightest on the market, for the US National Institute of Justice to use on its vehicles.

Dave Seaton, chief financial officer of Armor Designs, explained that with finite element analysis the strength of a material is the unknown factor, but with VCM and inverse finite element analysis the unknown factor is the original material.

'With finite element analysis you have a known product, like a lump of concrete, and you're trying to find the strength of that lump of concrete,' he said. 'So you put it under a known force in a press and turn on the pressure. When the concrete crumbles you know how strong it is.'