DSM Dyneema today launched Dyneema® BT10, its first commercially available product made from a novel, proprietary ballistic tape (BT) technology. The announcement was made jointly at the DVD exhibition, (Millbrook, UK), with Ten Cate Advanced Armour, who has selected Dyneema® BT10 for armor upgrading on the Patria XA-188 APC commissioned by the Dutch DMO (Defensie Materieel Organisatie). The vehicles will be used by the Dutch military forces stationed in Afghanistan and delivery is expected to be completed by October 2009.

Ten Cate’s armor solution is based on a ceramic strike face backed with a combination of Dyneema® BT10 and Dyneema® HB26 for optimal cost and performance balance.

“Dyneema® BT10 performed extremely well as a backing material behind the strike face armor and helped deliver a cost effective, light weight ballistic protection solution with excellent overall performance” commented Søren Gert Larsen, General Marketing Manager at Ten Cate Advanced Armour.

Ten Cate also stated that Dyneema® BT10 has been tested and certified according to NATO standards STANAG 4569 and AEP55.

Dyneema® BT10 provides vehicles with optimum protection without sacrificing crucial mobility. It will allow designers and manufacturers to balance the requirements for better performing vehicles, increased payloads, and room for future weight growth at a competitive cost level and is part of a growing range of light-weight and ultra-high armor protection material solutions from DSM Dyneema.

The expanding Life Protection portfolio of DSM Dyneema will soon include a premium grade UD material which raises the performance/weight equation to a new higher level. The premium grade will be launched this week at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement’s (IDGA) 4th annual Military Armor Protection conference in McLean, Virginia, USA.

Dyneema® BT10 is the first in a new ballistic tape technology platform that offers the ballistic performance of Dyneema® at a price which makes it highly competitive with aramids in many armor systems, at a weight level which outperforms aramids and approaches Dyneema® HB (Hard Ballistic) products. These include UD (unidirectional) composite products such as Dyneema® HB26 that sets the standard in light weight, stand alone protection.

In-house tests have shown that Dyneema® BT10 is lighter and stronger than the next best aramid based armor solution and offers many of the performance attributes of Dyneema® HB26 at a slightly higher weight. Dyneema® BT10 proves to be a very cost effective material for the most severe and unconventional threats emerging today. Furthermore, it is ideally suited as backing behind a strike face and as spall liner in overmatch situations.

“Our new range of ballistic tape products, led by Dyneema® BT10, extends our range of vehicle protection materials,” said Robert Smulders, Global VP Life Protection for DSM Dyneema. “This gives more choice and flexibility to customers to find the protection solution with the right balance of performance, weight and cost for their needs. We anticipate that the Dyneema® BT range of products will become the material of choice for a wide range of vehicle platforms that require better protection against conventional as well as the most dangerous and emerging threats today.”

DSM Dyneema is on target to significantly increase its global capacity for materials for personal protection (helmets, inserts and vests) and vehicle protection as part of a previously announced up to $450 million expansion, the majority of which is occurring at its Greenville, N.C., facility.