Kevlar, the material most used in developing bulletproof body armour, was invented by a woman, Stephanie Kwolek. It looks like another woman may have developed a light and even better bulletproof material that can be used for body armour and even as vehicle armour plating.

Afsaneh Rabiei, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at N.C. State University, has developed Composite Metal Foam (CMFs) over the years. When tested, bullets get obliterated upon impact.

If you think of the CMFs just like the foam sponge you see in the kitchen, then you are not off the mark. CMF is like that sponge but is metal using metallic hollow spheres of metal allows such as carbon, steel, or titanium and are embedded in a metallic matrix of other metallic alloys.

Kevlar, whilst it is a popular material for use in bulletproof vests, can be penetrated by armour-piercing bullets. The CMF so far, has withstood armour-piercing bullets in tests that it meets U.S. Department of Justice’s standards for Type IV armour. In the news report from NC State, the included video below shows a 7.62 x 63 millimeter M2 armor piercing bullet get obliterated upon impact:

“We could stop the bullet at a total thickness of less than an inch, while the indentation on the back was less than 8 millimeters,” Rabiei says. “To put that in context, the NIJ standard allows up to 44 millimeters indentation in the back of an armor.”

Apart from body armour, there are other potential applications for CMF. Afsaneh Rabiei also showed last year that CMFs are effective in shielding X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation. This means that CMFs can be used in the handling of nuclear waste, space exploration, and the development of new armour for military vehicles.