re: Plastic, and other (fwd)

[Michael Surbrook <susano@access.digex.net>]

Poster: Michael Surbrook <susano@access.digex.net>

On Wed, 18 Nov 1998, David KUIJT wrote:

> > Well, that's true, but if these individuals are looking for
> > possible avenues to go for shields that "break" when hit,
> > wouldn't it make sense to see how others have tried to do the
> > same thing? Surely, with the improvements in mechanical and
> > materials engineering, it might be possible to go from this
> > intricate mousetrap to a shield made of a mosaic of parts held
> > together by a brittle glue that breaks?
> 
> Hmm.  I'm guessing that you haven't seen the illustrations of the
> mechanism?
> 
> It certainly might be possible to make a shield that will break apart as
> you describe -- hell, I could probably do it in my basement, by cutting
> plywood 2" hexagons and gluing them together.  Might be fun, if I ever
> get any free time.  It is an amusing idea, certainly.  Might be simpler to
> just make a shield from a relatively fragile material (blue sheet
> insulation, for example).
> 
> However, this would have no connection at all with the "exploding" shield
> design -- from memory, those designs have more in common with truck
> leaf-springs and car-door hinges than a glued mosaic of parts.  They
> weren't designed to be ablative (destroyed gradually), either; if hit
> correctly they were designed to shatter dramatically and completely. 

The shields were round and had a trigger in the center boss.  Is struck
squarely, two arms snapped out from either side of the boss, causing the
sections of shield to fly free.  

The best pay to picture the shields (as I have seen them drawn) is to
imagine a large pizza with about 16-20 slices.  Each slice is designed to
fly free.  Underneath the pizza are two arms, shaped roughly like an
infinity sign (except the center arm is longer).  In ASCII it looks a
little like this:  o-o.  Hit the center bar, release the spring and the
arms snap foward and pop the snmall pizza slices off of the framework.

I am not certain what held the sections of shield in place, however, as
the artwor didn't make that too clear.

Michael Limner, esq.

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