It is commonly claimed that ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) laminates offer high energy absorption during projectile impact with a cross-ply configuration. In this study, we explored alternative configurations with the aim of achieving better ballistic resistance than that of the cross-ply architecture. The UHMWPE laminates were fabricated from Endumax® cross-ply SHIELD XF23 using a hot press machine and material properties were obtain from Endumax® unidirectional (UD) tape TA23 coupon specimens. A solid steel sphere was used as the projectile. It was found that thinner laminates have higher the specific ballistic limit suggesting that it is more effective to deploy multiple stacks of thin laminated panels spaced apart than to bond all the laminas to form a single thick laminate. Experiments confirmed that while the multiple laminate systems always outperformed a single laminate comprising the same number of laminas, it was also best not to space the laminates apart. When simply stacked without spacing, the multi-laminate arrangement significantly enhanced the ballistic performance (about 10% increase in ballistic limit over the single panel). Adjacent laminates in the multi-laminate system were then rotated 45^o relative to each other and then bonded together to form a single laminate with multiple blocks of similarly oriented laminas. This ply block configuration also had higher ballistic limit than the single cross-ply laminate for thin laminates but showed no advantage for thick laminates.

通常认为，超高分子量聚乙烯（UHMWPE）层压板在射弹冲击过程中具有交叉层结构，可提供高能量吸收。在这项研究中，我们探索了替代配置，目的是获得比跨层结构更好的防弹性能。UHMWPE层压板是使用热压机由Endumax®交叉层SHIELD XF23制造的，材料性能是由Endumax®单向（UD）胶带TA23试样制成的。实心钢球用作弹丸。已经发现，较薄的层压板具有更高的比弹道极限，这表明与将所有薄板粘结形成单个厚的层压板相比，将多个堆叠的薄层压板板间隔开来更有效。实验证实，尽管多个层压板系统始终胜过包含相同数量薄片的单个层压板，但最好也不要将层压板分隔开。当简单地堆叠而没有间距时，多层结构显着增强了防弹性能（相对于单个面板，防弹极限提高了约10％）。然后旋转多层系统中的相邻层压板45^Ò相对于彼此，然后结合在一起，以形成具有类似取向的薄层的多个块上的单个层压板。与薄层压件的单交叉层压件相比，该层压块构型还具有更高的防弹极限，但对于厚层压件却没有显示出优势。