Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
It's reasonably likely that some form of 3d printing is the future of advanced body armor, as it lets you play games with nanoscale structures to improve features such as fracture resistance, but as far as I know the tech is not there yet.
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But could 3D printing softer steel and titanium alloys let you make a seemingly one-piece breastplate (or cuirass) where you started with sheets of ultra high hardness steel alloys in those places where you could get away with gently curving plates and used the softer, 3D printed alloys to cover all the other parts of the upper torso?
Essentially, could it connect together seperate pieces of higher DR armour which can't easily be worked into the shapes necessary to make comfortable, wearable body armour?
And make it
look like a movie-knight breastplate or cuirass, rather than some trauma plates cludged together?
I get that the DR for the shaped parts would be much lower (they'd still be 16G or thicker armour constructed from the strongest alloys of steel and titanium possible for a 3D printer, but they sure as hell wouldn't be rated against rifle rounds), but I'm wondering how practical it is to use 3D printing for the essentially cosmetic function of making this look like 'real plate' harness and not like a higher tech coat of plates or brigandine, which is what you'd get if you used fabric (probably ballistic, with maybe an aesthetic outer liner of leather or other appropriate looking material) to tie together the seperate alloy pieces.