Von Roll launches the new PARA-LITE^® PHT20 armoring material based on HiPer-tex™ high performance fibreglass from 3B

Battice, Belgium – September 29, 2010 – To stay ahead of latest threats, police, military and paramilitary organisations can now benefit from lightweight, cost competitive, advanced composite materials.

Thanks to the unique development of HiPer-tex™ high performance glass fibre from 3B, Von Roll extends its armoring products range and unveils new PARA-LITE® PHT20 phenolic prepreg for hard armoring applications.

The ever increasing needs for safety and security are driving today the demand for hard armor solutions capable of countering present and future threats. Evenmore, optimal protection needs to be achieved without compromising practical constraints such as weight and cost reductions that is met by combination of 3B’s HiPer-tex™ fibre with Von Roll composites long lasting know-how in impregnation and lamination technologies.

Von Roll was keen to state: “HiPer-tex™ made PARA-LITE® PHT20 phenolic prepreg solves both challenges of weight reductions and affordability for today and tomorrow hard armor systems. This makes lighter weight and economical our newly developed certified composites stand-alone and hybrid STANAG 4569 ballistics solutions that defeat a range of ammunitions from small arms to high calibers such as Amor Piercing bullets. This enables Von Roll to propose to our customers an even wider range of ballistics solutions they are interested in”.

Eric Debondue, Specialties Business Development Leader of 3B added: “Our unique HiPer-tex™ glass formulation, delivers a high level of performance in composite parts while ensuring sustainable economics. In parallel to our latest developments in wind energy and high pressure vessels we are very pleased at 3B to partner with VonRoll to develop a ballistics solution that has a high level of protection and an extremely long term durability thanks to the high mechanical and high impact resistance properties of HiPer-tex™ fibre.”

Hard Armor ballistics protections are known to protect against bullets, IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devises) and EFP (Explosively Former Projectiles) while bringing structure in naval ships, planes and vehicles.

HiPer-tex™ high performance fibres are ideally suited to hard armor applications, as well as many other industry segments, due to an increasing demand for weight reduction combined with higher performance that is economically viable for high capacity production.

For more information about high performance products and systems for ballistic protection and the new PARA-LITE® PHT20’s possibilities in these applications, visit www.vonroll.com.

For more information about 3B HiPer-tex™ rovings for ballistics applications, please download the brochure by clicking here.

3B the fibreglass company will be present at K 2010 in Düsseldorf on Stand C79 in Hall 8B.