Lightweight armored vehicle and method of making same using woven polyester glass protective sheets

The method of making a lightweight woven protective layer for dissipating at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile comprising:

• spinning hard filaments and filaments of high tensile strength into strands containing both said hard filaments and said filaments of high tensile strength;
• weaving said ballistic sheets from said strands;
• sizing a plurality of said woven ballistic sheets with a sizing material;
• laminating a first sheet upon a second sheet with a resin catalyst mixture, said resin catalyst mixture imperfectly bonding with said sizing material;
• repeating the laminating step with additional sheets subsequently being located upon said second sheet until the desired number of sheets have been laminated upon each other to form a stack of laminated sheets;
• and
• subjecting said stack to heat and pressures to fuse said stack into a rigid protective layer;
• said filaments are comprised of a mixture of polyester filaments and glass filaments.

A protective layer designed and constructed to dissipate at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile comprising:

• a plurality of woven ballistic sheets comprised of ballistic strands, each of said sheets containing both hard filaments to dissipate at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile by deforming said projectile and filaments of high tensile strength to dissipate at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile by causing deformation of said sheet prior to penetration by said projectile;
• a sizing material applied to said plurality of sheets;
• said plurality of sized sheets being layered next to each other and bound into a protective layer by a bonding material;
• said protective layer being effective to dissipate at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile impacting upon said protective layer;
• at least some of said ballistic strands containing both said hard filaments and said high tensile strength filaments;
• and
• said strands are comprised of a mixture of polyester filaments and glass filaments.

A method of retrofitting a standard automobile for lightweight armor consisting of the following steps:

• removing interior furnishing and windows from a passenger compartment of said automobile;
• taking window operating mechanisms out of said automobile;
• reframing windows and doors to receive bullet resistant windows therein;
• contouring said automobile adjacent said reframed windows for said reframed windows;
• inserting a rigid protective layer formed from a plurality of sized woven ballistic sheets laminated next to each other in doors and walls of said passenger compartment;
• installing ballistic resistant cloth in floors and ceiling of said passenger compartment;
• reinforcing frames of said passenger compartment;
• refurbishing said interior furnishing of said passenger compartment;
• said ballistic sheets being comprised of ballistic filaments, at least some of said filaments being hard filaments to dissipate at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile by deforming said projectile and at least some of said filaments being filaments of high tensile strength to dissipate at least a portion of the kinetic energy of a high velocity projectile by causing deformation of said sheet prior to penetration by said projectile;
• said reinforced framing, bullet resistant windows, rigid protective layer and ballistic resistant cloth creating overlapping barriers to penetration of said passenger compartment by most projectiles in event of attack with a minimum increase in weight.