ALON Material Successfully Scaled Up for Military and Commercial Applications

Applications

• Military and Commercial Significance:
• Polycrystalline aluminum oxynitride, known commercially as ALON, offers performance and scaling not otherwise possible for large, lightweight, infrared (IR) transparencies. This new technology could play a significant role in the development of affordable, transparent armor, including windows for military aircraft, where trimming life-cycle costs could save millions while providing greater protection for flight crews.
• Polycrystalline aluminum oxynitride, known commercially as ALON, offers performance and scaling not otherwise possible for large, lightweight, infrared (IR) transparencies. This new technology could play a significant role in the development of affordable, transparent armor, including windows for military aircraft, where trimming life-cycle costs could save millions while providing greater protection for flight crews.
• ALON has a number of significant advantages, as previously mentioned, over conventional materials currently used to make windows for reconnaissance aircraft, missile domes, protection shields and lenses, and other products that support the warfighter. A potential market for its use already exists in supermarket scanner windows, which are manufactured in quantities of tens of thousands of units per year. Field testing is under way for this technology transfer.
• ALON demonstrated outstanding ballistic impact resistance for safeguarding motor vehicle occupants. As a result of these findings,engineers are evaluating ALON for possible insertion into ground-based transparent armor. Raytheon Electronic Systems at Lexington Laboratories, Lexington, Massachusetts, owns the patent. However, Surmet Corporation of Burlington, Massachusetts, recently acquired ALON from Raytheon and has begun manufacturing the ceramic for commercial and military applications.