So /k/ ive been thinking late night thoughts and i was wondering could it be possible to create old historical plate armors from ar500 steel? Would it still be as effective? I know ar500 plates are a bit thicker than armor was back then but how heavy/maneuverable do you think it would actually be pic somewhat realted
Ar-500 steel isn't just steel. You can't reform it and maintain it's ballistic qualities unless you own the damn factory.
>>29909458
I didnt mean personal reforming in my garage just if it could be made into this style intead on just plates in carries
>>29909498
It could but that's like asking why we build cars out of Steel instead of Titanium. Obviously it's extremely cost prohibitive over mass produced molded AR500 plates.
>>29909538
I had assumed it wouldnt be a good idea or itd have been done but i do think itd be neat to see things like thigh plates and complete body armor sytems like modern riot gear made from kevlar and ar500 steel plates in the future but im sure itd be heavy and unwieldy just as previous plate armors were
>>29909447
You mean like batman suit?
>>29909884
Wasnt batmans suit some carbon fiber titanium nanoweave scyfy wizardry?
As far as I can tell, steel plates like AR-500, Hardox, Weldox, etc gain most of their performance in comparison to "normal" rolled plate by virtue of having been quickly cooled after hot rolling, ie they come pre-heat treated from the factory. As a lot of steel plate is used without any furtehr heat treatment, and many things made with them would be a bother and a half to heat treat after manufacture, this can be quite an advantage in general, even though you're "only" doing something that's been known about since antiquity.
As such, getting that kind of performance, or better, out of armour plates isn't all that hard for as skilled craftsman with a large enough bucket, hardening and tempering of armour took off back in the 15th century (and then, for various reasons, got phased out in the 16th). IIRC there's a good number of armourers today who can and do harden and temper their products.
As for how AR-500 or equivalent would perform if shaped into old style plate armour, well, that's basically up to the plate thickness. Now in a good harness that varies considerably from one part to another, to get the best possible compromise between overall weight, overall protection, and the distribution of said weight and protection.
As some kind of estimate though, IIRC the thinnest bits (finger lames for example) may be less than a millimetre thick, the average might be somewhere in the 1-1.5mm range, and the thicker parts (breastplate, helmet) for the kind of armour you're thinking of will probably be in the 1.5-4mm range (leaning on the thinner), while in the 17th century the upper end of that range runs off to maybe 8mm.
Then all you need to do is to find out how many mm of AR-500 you need to stop whatever projectile you're worried about, and you'll have some idea what parts, if any, of an old style harness could stop it.
It would be incredibly heavy
AR500 is dense as fuck
It would be incredibly heavy
AR500 is dense as fuck
>>29911135
7.83g/cc
Almost as dense as plain iron. Much like you'd expect from steel.
Assuming no overlap of the plates, coverage of a human thorax (anterior and posterior, also some coverage of the abdomen not extended to the groin) in 1/4" AR500 would weigh over 70 pounds.
AR500 in nugget-stopping thickness would weigh hundreds of pounds for full body coverage. That's why it's going to need powered armor to be useful.
>>29910839
>As far as I can tell, steel plates like AR-500, Hardox, Weldox, etc gain most of their performance in comparison to "normal" rolled plate by virtue of having been quickly cooled after hot rolling, ie they come pre-heat treated from the factory.
Yes and no. They are so good because they have an excellent bainite-martsenite ratio. This ratio is one of the few wholly modern metallurgical upgrades in the arms/armor repro market, better than e.g. wootz - L6 bainite katanas attained popularity as a genuine upgrade and used to run in the 4-8 thousand USD range.
AR500 is now famous, and popular, because it invented the first cheap, high-speed mass-production method for this bainite ratio - in the late 00s, IIRC.
>>29911769
UHMWPE is maybe 1/3 or 1/4 the weight of AR500, and achieving full body coverage with approaches 100 lb.
Tbf that's inside the range an unpowered exoskeleton makes feasible, but PE is vulnerable to AP-core rounds the same way steel is weak vs high velocity.
>>29911828
>better than e.g. wootz
Considering that a few wootz blades tested back in the twenties had material properties that where inferior across the board to a pattern welded steel, which in turn was inferior across the board to a cast steel of that time, basically any steel of today should be considerably superior to wootz.
>>29911700
Plates that stop rifle rounds are often 3/8ths inches so itd be even heavier for a system thats actually useful if youre not trying to stop rifle rounds then you might aswell just stick with kevlar
>>29911828
Why would you want what I assume is a lower bainite/martensite combo when you could just use tempered martensite?
