Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

I said 'soft', not 'flexible'. Aluminum isn't all that flexible, and at the same weight is generally less flexible (due to being thicker), but it's soft, which means you can cut it with a blade.

As for anodizing, if you can produce aluminum at all you can handle anodizing it. The only way you'd be unable to do that is if for some reason you have a supply of found aluminum, and any such aluminum will have been manufactured, it simply doesn't occur in pure or semi-pure form in nature.

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

Way back when I designed the M113, I was told aluminum armor has 1/3 the DR for the same thickness (or in this case, weight):

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=64749

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

Transparent aluminum is stronger then tempered wire reinforced bulletproof glass

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_ceramics

so it should at least have superior DR/weight to tempered wire reinforced glass (or if somehow being used for body armour, better then glass with the shatterproof spell on it).

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

That's a ceramic composite. It's not metallic aluminum. It's only called that because of The Voyage Home.

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

What you reference is most certainly not transparent aluminum. It is transparent alumina (among other things) - very different.

Luke

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

Yeah, the only way to make transparent metallic aluminum is by having it extremely thin (aluminized mylar) or having holes in it (wire mesh screens).

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

Aieeeee! Fetch the torches and the pitchforks! The undead arwe among us!

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

Which has always struck me as strange when you could just as legitimately sell it as Sapphire, which you'd think would have a broader market appeal.

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

Then you lose the "How do'ye know he didna invent the ting?" jokes. I suspect the inventors are geeks.

Re: How good would Aluminum armor be?
 

...Aluminum and steel have radically different densities. It may have 1/3 DR by thickness, or 1/3 DR by weight, but it cannot possibly have both.