ALKEMIX CORPORATION — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DLA203-005

Description

Alkemix Corporation is pleased to offer a systematic approach to the recovery and reintroduction of Boron Carbide (B4C) raw materials incapsulated within hard armor ballistic plates currently demilitarized by the DLA. One such stock-pile is a quantity of 120,000 virgin, never deployed XSAPI (The X Threat Small Arm Protective Insert) armor plate systems held within the DLA. Alkemix will focus on baselining the B4C recovery process employing current ceramic powder manufacturing techniques. Our process will include jaw crushing, ball-milling, contamination removal, and further particle size reduction to nano-phase levels. The deliverable powder will be in <325 mesh micronized particle size powder and <200nm nano size particulate powder. The two solutions will be added to existing, virgin B4C powders for hot-press lamination and tested for ballistic equivalence. The recycled powder will reduce the required feedstock for current hard armor manufacturing and potentially facilitate a viable domestically sourced supply chain, Furthermore, Alkemix will isolate the other advance composite materials currently molded within the XSAPI hard armor and reintroduce those materials back into other alternate value chains. The baselined process will allow further reclamation processes for other high-value, ceramic based raw materials such as Tungsten Carbide, Silicon Carbide, and Aluminum Carbide.