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Gauging interest in lightweight/high strength armor

What weight savings/strength strategy would you go for?

  • Save as much weight as possible/comparable strength to standard armor

    Votes: 6 60.0%
  • Stronger armor/slightly lighter weight

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Literally, bulletproof/no weight savings

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Take your snake oil elsewhere, charlatan

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

SteelWorks

NAXJA Forum User
Location
DC
As the title implies, I'm gauging interest for lightweight/high strength options for steel off-road bumpers and skid plates/armor.

To make a long story short, I'm in the (preliminary) phase of working with an alloy of steel that has the potential to have a higher specific strength than titanium - and I'd like to offer it to the off road community. I'm partial to the "old school" Jeep community because many of you have extensive experience with what works and what doesn't.

However, there are some options, and I'm attempting to give the community what it wants. The material is approximately 3x stronger than chromoly - which makes it even pound for pound, stronger than titanium. Therefore, I could make off road armor that is quite frankly, absurdly strong, or make armor that is the same strength as traditional mild steel armor, but at a significant weight savings. Or of course, anywhere in between.

For simple math, we'll use a bumper as an example, and say that it weighs 50lbs (which I realize is conservative). Conservatively, you can expect this material to be 50% lighter, to save 25 lbs.

Also, I'm going to attempt to answer a couple of questions for those of you who are skeptical (rightfully so). And those questions are -
Is it ridiculously hard and therefore, very difficult, if not impossible to weld?
No. It can be welded with conventional filler material.
(Similar question) Is it so brittle (non-ductile) that it will shatter rather than bend if (when) we manage to break it?
No. It retains its ductility, similar to high alloy, ductile steel (similar to chromoly).

So my first question for you is:
What strategy do you prefer? Super weight savings, super strength, or in between (a little of both)?

I appreciate your input already and I'm anxious to hear your thoughts - thanks in advance!
 
Gotcha.


That means no playing around with it doing things like welding recovery points to it, adding/modifying a spare tire carrier, or the like.


Could be fine for a bunch of folks, but I have learned to try to avoid ordering anything that even has a finish on it because I so often end up modifying things just to install them.
 
I'm with anak on this one. Everyone's build is so different there's always welcome work on my rig.. no need for heart treatments just for me to destroy that benefit....

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
For us plug and play guys....id go stronger slightly lighter. As long as it has some basic features...2" receiver, d-rings and the like.
 
I realize that my original post is a little on the rambling side. I tried to keep it succinct, but it's kind of a weird thing to describe/explain. But I already appreciate your guys' feedback.

However, to reiterate what I mentioned originally - this material is readily weldable with standard filler materials. Just like with any other material, yes, you should pay attention to what your doing when you're welding, but no, you won't compromise its strength just by welding.
 
This does sound interesting - please do keep us posted.
 
I realize that my original post is a little on the rambling side. I tried to keep it succinct, but it's kind of a weird thing to describe/explain. But I already appreciate your guys' feedback.

However, to reiterate what I mentioned originally - this material is readily weldable with standard filler materials. Just like with any other material, yes, you should pay attention to what your doing when you're welding, but no, you won't compromise its strength just by welding.

You are going to need to provide more depth on this subject.

Sure, you can weld on heat treated steel. That is not in question. But its properties are going to change as a result. Welding will essentially anneal the affected region. To anneal it will be to take away that strength which heat treatment gave it. I believe this is why frames on big rigs are clearly marked "Do not weld".
 
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