Tank Armor Late '30's-Early '40's

[Rick]

Limited knowledge of tank armor on my part. Basically, how was tank armor made in this time era?

Composite armor or it's theories being tested at this time?

Thanks,

Rick

[Guest Jason L]

It's not entirely obvious when composite armour development began in earnest. There was copious research into using things like confined ceramics throughout the 50ies, which suggests the ideas go back much further. More importantly, engineering ceramics just weren't at a level of technology and production to have seen mass use in WW2. It's only really in the 60ies that ceramics and ballistic science were mature enough to dramatically move away from monolithic steel armour.

 

Certain theoretical underpinnings of composite armour were understood at the time: stuff like the role of hardness and fracture toughness in ballistic resistance.

 

Tank armour of the war period was generally steel monoblocks variously cast, rolled and heat-treated depending on who, what, and when. A few designs had spaced plates and similar.

[rmgill]

Depends on the type of vehicle.

 

Most of it would have been rolled plate, drilled and riveted to other pieces or to a subframe bolted/riveted up prior. LAter improvements went to gas or electric welding of the plates/frames. Thicker pieces still needed bolting up or were larger castings. There was a composite turret in the Middle of WWII for the Churchills for example (front/sides/rear of the turret was cast, the roof was a plate welded into/onto the upper part of the assembly. Easier to control weight and thickness but still be good for strength.

[Colin]

Consider that the threat of HEAT did not appear on the battlefield till around 43, although the "Monroe effect" was known in the 30's. I wonder if you could consider the Germans use of cement coatings as a early ceramic?

[rmgill]

Consider that the threat of HEAT did not appear on the battlefield till around 43, although the "Monroe effect" was known in the 30's. I wonder if you could consider the Germans use of cement coatings as a early ceramic?

 

1940 old boy.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_68_AT_Grenade

 

[Colin]

When in doubt about something post it here, you will soon be corrected

[Rick]

Did tank armor engineers, designers, etc. pick the brains of naval armor folks? How about with armor piercing rounds? I admit, again, very limited knowledge of tank armor, but it appears there are some similarities. Albeit on much smaller dimensions. From the previous posts tank armor was cast or formed from plates. From what little I know, I have not heard of cast naval armor.

[Guest Jason L]

Consider that the threat of HEAT did not appear on the battlefield till around 43, although the "Monroe effect" was known in the 30's. I wonder if you could consider the Germans use of cement coatings as a early ceramic?

 

1940 old boy.

 

http://en.wikipedia....o_68_AT_Grenade

 

German hollow charges for demolition work predate even that. Concrete certainly is a composite in and of itself, but calling the use of that sort of applique a composite is playing a bit loose with the terminology IMO.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Jason L

[Guest Jason L]

Did tank armor engineers, designers, etc. pick the brains of naval armor folks? How about with armor piercing rounds? I admit, again, very limited knowledge of tank armor, but it appears there are some similarities. Albeit on much smaller dimensions. From the previous posts tank armor was cast or formed from plates. From what little I know, I have not heard of cast naval armor.

 

They most certainly did talk - but also probably replicated a lot of work that was already done. The scale and general geometry for ships probably removes much of the advantage of casting, you tend to get better material properties control if you can hot/cold work the material prior to final assembly too, which you can't really do with a casting.