ARBOK SECOND SKIN

Overview

The constraint on current body armour is geometric rather than ballistic. Ceramic cannot be formed to complex anatomical curvature without loss of ballistic integrity, so plate geometry is determined by manufacturing constraint rather than by anatomy or by the spatial distribution of injury. A standard pair of 10×12-inch plates covers approximately 15.5 dm²; against a body surface area of 1.8 m² this is under 9% of the body. Meanwhile fragments — approximately 70% of combat wounds since the Second World War — are not directionally selective and arrive across the whole body surface.

ALIS is a zoned soft-armour system in which corundum and thermally expanded graphite are dispersed in glycerine-type polyols and used to impregnate aramid fabric, forming a shear thickening fluid: a dilatant, non-Newtonian liquid that behaves as a thick paste at rest and becomes instantly rigid under sharp impact. Because the pack is cut to the body rather than shaped as a rigid rectangle, the areal density can be varied by zone in line with how risk is distributed.

The enabling economic condition is TEG produced by the Arbok-TEG process at $50 per kg, manufactured at industrial production scale. The resulting composite forms a three-zone configuration totalling approximately 14.0 kg covering 1.00 m², against a current infantry baseline of approximately 12 kg covering 0.155 m² — a 6.5-fold increase in covered area at comparable mass. The STF functionality costs approximately 4% of pack cost.

Applications

Personal protection: a soft pack cut to the body, wrapping shoulders, neck, groin, flanks and thighs — everything rigid ceramic fundamentally cannot cover. Protection is distributed by zone: rifle-tier areal density over the torso and vital zones, fragment/handgun/stab protection over groin, neck, flanks and shoulders, and fragment protection at minimum mass over the limbs.

ALIS blankets: flexible or rigid panels covering vulnerable elements of military infrastructure — light vehicles, drones, dugout entrances, equipment shelters. Deployed quickly and precisely where needed without modifying the object. Most relevant around ammunition and fuel storage, where the decisive factor is fragment flux rather than a direct hit. The source states explicitly that against a direct heavy-munition strike such a panel offers no protection and is not intended to; its task is the fragment field.

New markets: superhard coatings that remain light, zoned protection, smart fluids, and civilian applications from sports equipment to industrial personnel protection. Manufacturers of protective equipment gain a tool for a new generation of products — lighter, better protected, and above all differently shaped.

Operating Principle

Formulation chain: TEG is produced from natural graphite through the proprietary Arbok-TEG process — a multi-stage chemical and thermal treatment route that expands and purifies the graphite into a stable suspension. The resulting TEG is combined with corundum to form the fluid's particulate phase, then blended into viscous glycerine-type polyol carriers (glycerine, polyethylene glycol and their mixtures). The result is a shear thickening fluid used to impregnate woven p-aramid fabric.

Protective mechanism: the glycerine-type components provide damping, absorbing and dispersing impact energy through high viscosity and rapid densification, so the force of the strike is spread across the volume of the fluid, loses concentration and dies out. The fluid also actively resists: corundum and TEG suspended in the non-Newtonian medium form rigid force chains that block penetration instantly. The graphene filler combined with corundum creates a single monolith at the moment of impact. By adjusting component ratios and particle size, hardness and viscosity can be tuned to produce a different protection level.

Established prior mechanism: Lee, Wetzel and Wagner demonstrated that Kevlar impregnated with colloidal silica in ethylene glycol showed substantially enhanced ballistic penetration resistance without loss of flexibility. Decker et al. established marked improvement in puncture resistance and modest improvement in cut resistance for STF-treated fabrics relative to neat fabric of equivalent areal density, attributing the mechanism to reduced filament and yarn mobility in the impact zone.

Novelty and what is not proven: the published STF-fabric literature uses monodisperse colloidal silica as the solid phase. ALIS substitutes a corundum-dominant particulate phase with a graphene-like TEG fraction. The intended effect of the TEG fraction is not mass contribution but modification of the particulate network and interfacial behaviour, together with electromagnetic absorption. The preprint states this substitution is the subject of the validation programme and is not claimed as demonstrated.

Limitations stated in the sources:

• All figures are analytical, derived from component densities, volume fractions and geometry. No ballistic testing has been performed on the ALIS formulation.
• The assignment of rifle-tier protection to the reinforced torso zone is an areal-density argument by analogy with fielded systems of comparable areal density, and requires experimental confirmation before it may be stated as a protection level.
• A soft pack at typical light-zone areal densities does not defeat rifle-calibre projectiles. The relevant distinction for soft armour is not armour-piercing versus ball but handgun versus rifle: soft armour arrests a relatively slow, deformable projectile by distributing load across fabric layers, a mechanism that fails at rifle-class impact velocities irrespective of core construction. This limitation is intrinsic and is not addressed by the present formulation.
• Volume fractions are a working design point, not an optimised or established formulation. Zone areas are anatomical estimates. Component prices are indicative market values; the aramid price in particular is a market estimate and not a procured figure.
• Fluid migration, thermal stability across the service temperature range, laundering and ageing behaviour, and behind-armour blunt trauma have not been assessed.
• Open questions specific to ALIS: whether an angular corundum-dominant particulate phase reproduces the shear-thickening behaviour characterised for monodisperse colloidal silica; whether the TEG fraction modifies network formation favourably; and whether the resulting composite retains flexibility and durability under service conditions.
• Reporting of any protection level prior to completion of validation Stages 2 and 3 is explicitly deprecated.

Key Parameters

Components

The formulation combines a corundum-dominant particulate phase, a thermally expanded graphite (TEG) fraction produced by the Arbok-TEG process, and a glycerine-type polyol carrier, used to impregnate a woven p-aramid substrate. TEG is produced at $50 per kg at industrial production scale, with low residual impurity content suitable for composite use. TEG also carries a documented broadband electromagnetic absorption property, spanning from the low-kHz range to the sub-terahertz range — a secondary characteristic relevant to signature management and outside the scope of the ballistic analysis. Corundum (alpha-alumina) and the polyol carrier are established, low-cost industrial materials; the aramid substrate is a standard woven fabric held constant across all zones.

Blend

The working design point combines the corundum-and-TEG particulate phase with the polyol carrier in proportions chosen to achieve shear-thickening behaviour while keeping the blend dominated by its lowest-cost components by weight. The resulting composite has a density typical of ceramic-particulate-loaded polymer systems.

Zoned configuration

| Zone | Relative protection tier | Area |

|---|---|---|

| Torso, vital zones | Highest loading, rifle-tier by areal-density analogy | 0.40 m² |

| Groin, neck, flanks, shoulders | Intermediate loading, handgun/fragment/stab tier | 0.25 m² |

| Limbs | Minimum loading, fragment protection at lowest mass | 0.35 m² |

| Total | System average areal density about 14.0 kg/m² | 1.00 m² at about 14.0 kg |

Per-zone loading and thickness figures are a working design point that the validation programme (Section 9) is intended to confirm before any figure is stated as final.

Comparison baseline

| Solution | Value |

|---|---|

| Steel plate 10×12 inches | 3.6–4.5 kg; areal density about 47 kg/m² |

| Corundum plate with UHMWPE backing | 41–47 kg/m² at 20–25 mm thickness; defeats armour-piercing rifle rounds |

| Soft aramid pack (neat) | 5–6 kg/m²; stops only handgun rounds and stab attack |

| Coverage of a standard pair of plates | About 15.5 dm² = 0.155 m² |

| Body surface area assumed | 1.8 m² — plates therefore cover under 9% of the body |

| Current infantry personal protection | About 12 kg for 0.155 m² of coverage |

| Zoned ALIS | 14 kg for 1 m² of coverage — 6.5 times the covered area |

| Covering 1 m² with corundum plate at 45 kg/m² | 45 kg — described as not a deployable figure, half a soldier's full combat load |

Human load and injury epidemiology

| Parameter | Value |

|---|---|

| Mobility reduction per additional kilogram carried | About 1.5% across sprint, obstacle negotiation and power-generation tasks |

| Restrictive respiratory decrement from body armour | 6–8% |

| Average infantryman personal protective equipment | About 12 kg |

| Full combat load | 40–64 kg |

| Wounds caused by fragments | Approximately 70% of combat wounds since the Second World War; reported proportions of surgical cases between 44% and 92% depending on conflict and phase |

Architecture and Components

• Substrate: woven p-aramid fabric, with areal density held constant across all zones.
• Impregnation: shear thickening fluid combining a corundum-dominant particulate phase, a TEG fraction and a glycerine-type polyol carrier, applied at zone-specific loadings that scale with each zone's threat level.
• Garment form: a soft pack cut to the body — shoulders, neck, groin, flanks and thighs — with shape set by anatomy rather than by material limitation, and thickness varied by zone.
• ALIS blankets: flexible or rigid panels of the same material for infrastructure and equipment.

Garment construction — seams, carrier system, closures and layup sequence — follows standard soft-armour assembly practice, adapted to the zoned thickness profile described above.

Advantages

• Geometry, not incremental ballistics: the technology removes the constraint that protection can only be placed where a rigid rectangle fits. ALIS protects where the soldier is.
• 6.5 times the covered area at comparable mass: 14 kg for 1 m² against 12 kg for 0.155 m² in current practice.
• Zoned distribution of areal density matched to how risk is distributed, within a single conformable garment.
• Addresses the dominant wounding mechanism: fragments, which account for roughly 70% of combat wounds and arrive from any direction rather than strictly frontally.
• Retention of flexibility: the established STF-fabric mechanism enhances penetration resistance without loss of flexibility; the material is soft in movement and rigid at the moment of impact.
• Cost structure: STF impregnation of 1 m² in the light configuration costs approximately $6.82 against an aramid substrate cost of order $165 per m² — the functional phase is approximately 4% of pack cost, so system economics are governed by the textile substrate rather than by the novel component. This is what makes the technology scalable rather than laboratory-bound.
• Mass is carried by the cheapest components: the particulate and carrier phases make up the large majority of blend weight, with the TEG fraction contributing a small share.
• Secondary TEG property: documented broadband electromagnetic absorption spanning from the low-kHz range to the sub-terahertz range, relevant to signature management (explicitly outside the scope of the ballistic analysis).
• Feedstock availability: TEG at $50 per kg, produced at industrial scale, turns a former laboratory curiosity into a mass-production feedstock; corundum is an established, low-cost industrial abrasive.

Integrations

• Arbok-TEG process — the enabling feedstock, produced from natural graphite via a proprietary multi-stage chemical and thermal treatment route. TEG process and cost data are held by ARBOK Strategic Research Institute.
• Standard woven p-aramid fabric as the substrate — ALIS is an impregnation of an existing textile rather than a new fibre.
• Existing hard plates — ALIS covers the zones plates cannot, without replacing them for rifle threats.
• Standards frameworks referenced: NIJ 0101.06 (superseded by 0101.07 paired with 0123.00), NIJ 0115.00, STANAG 2920 / AEP-2920.

Integration with specific carrier platforms and procurement systems follows standard defence-procurement qualification pathways once validation testing is complete.

Deployment & Operation

• Worn as a conformable soft pack cut to the body, with zone-specific thickness.
• ALIS blankets are deployed quickly and precisely onto light vehicles, drones, dugout entrances and equipment shelters without modifying the object.
• Proposed validation programme (precondition for any statement of protection level):
• Stage 1 — rheology: characterise the critical shear rate and peak viscosity of the corundum–TEG–polyol system across the relevant range of particulate loadings; establish whether shear thickening is achieved and at what loading.
• Stage 2 — fragment performance: V50 determination under STANAG 2920 (AEP-2920) against a 1.1 g fragment-simulating projectile, for each of the three zone configurations, against neat aramid controls of equivalent areal density.
• Stage 3 — ballistic classification: NIJ 0101.07 with 0123.00 — tier HG2 for light zones, tiers RF1 and RF2 for the reinforced torso zone; behind-armour blunt trauma measured throughout.
• Stage 4 — stab and spike: NIJ 0115.00.
• Stage 5 — service conditions: thermal cycling, fluid retention, flexural durability, and mass stability over simulated service life.

Service life, storage, cleaning and field maintenance procedures remain to be established through the Stage 5 service-conditions programme; the preprint states laundering and ageing behaviour have not yet been assessed.

TRL

TRL 4 — проставлен Михаилом 2026-08-06. — no TRL value is stated. The preprint characterises ALIS as a design study: all reported figures are analytical, derived from component densities, volume fractions and geometry, and no ballistic testing has been performed on the ALIS formulation. The underlying TEG feedstock is described as in production at $50 per kg with throughput up to 1,000 kg per hour.

> ⚠️ СЕРТИФИКАЦИИ НЕТ. Подтверждено Михаилом, июль 2026. Баллистических испытаний не проводилось. Уровни HG2 и RF1–RF2 — это цели этапа 3 программы валидации, а не достигнутый результат; привязка к винтовочным классам сделана по аналогии с поверхностной плотностью и требует экспериментального подтверждения.

>

> В популярной статье утверждается обратное — «три заявки ALIS сертифицированы по трём стандартам», лёгкие зоны «соответствуют Level IIIA, то есть HG2», усиленная грудная зона «сертифицирована по винтовочным RF1–RF2». Это неверно. Указывать уровень защиты до завершения этапов 2 и 3 нельзя. Формулировки статьи нужно исправить до любой внешней публикации.

Market Potential

Market size figures are not given in the sources; the segments below indicate where demand is concentrated.

Segments and drivers named:

• Infantry personal protection, where the current architecture delivers 0.155 m² of coverage for about 12 kg while roughly 70% of wounds come from fragments arriving across the whole body.
• Protection of military infrastructure: light vehicles, drones, dugout entrances, equipment shelters, and above all ammunition and fuel storage areas exposed to fragment flux.
• New material and product markets: superhard coatings that remain light, zoned protection, smart fluids.
• Civilian applications: sports equipment through to industrial personnel protection.
• The source frames the constraint as delivery speed rather than feasibility: TEG is starting a chain reaction of innovation, and the question is no longer whether next-generation protection can be built but how quickly it is delivered.

Typical Project Economics

Cost of impregnating 1 m² in the light configuration

The functional STF phase — corundum, TEG and polyol carrier combined — costs approximately $6.82 per m² in the light-zone configuration, against an aramid substrate cost of order $165 per m². The STF functionality therefore adds approximately 4% to pack cost, and the aramid substrate governs total unit economics.

The popular article states the same total rounded: approximately $7 per m² for the STF phase against roughly $165 for the aramid substrate.

The economics of the system are governed by the textile substrate, not by the novel component. The enabling economic precondition is TEG at $50 per kg, produced at industrial scale. Component prices are indicative market values; the aramid price in particular is a market estimate and not a procured figure.

Full garment cost, manufacturing CAPEX, production-line economics and unit price scale with production volume and are established during the industrialisation phase that follows validation testing.

Risk Factors

Technical risks stated in the sources:

• No ballistic testing has been performed on the ALIS formulation. All results are analytical. Any statement of protection level is deprecated until validation Stages 2 and 3 are completed.
• The particulate phase is unproven. The published STF literature uses monodisperse colloidal silica; whether an angular corundum-dominant phase reproduces the characterised shear-thickening behaviour is an open question, as is whether the TEG fraction modifies network formation favourably.
• Rifle-tier claim is unverified: the 22 kg/m² torso zone is assigned rifle-tier protection by analogy with fielded systems of comparable areal density, not by measurement.
• Intrinsic limit: soft armour arrests a relatively slow, deformable projectile by distributing load across fabric layers; this mechanism fails at rifle-class impact velocities irrespective of core construction, and the ALIS formulation does not address it.
• Formulation not optimised: the current corundum–TEG–polyol ratio is a working design point rather than an optimised or validated formulation.
• Geometry estimated: zone areas are anatomical estimates; body surface area is taken as 1.8 m².
• Unassessed service behaviour: fluid migration, thermal stability across the service temperature range, laundering and ageing behaviour, flexural durability, mass stability over service life, and behind-armour blunt trauma.
• ALIS blankets provide no protection against a direct heavy-munition strike and are not intended to; their task is the fragment field only.

Commercial and disclosure risks:

• Component prices are indicative market values; the aramid substrate price, which governs 96% of pack cost, is a market estimate rather than a procured figure, so the cost case is sensitive to actual textile procurement.
• The authors hold intellectual property in the Arbok-TEG process (declared conflict of interest).
• Public communication about ALIS already contains certification claims that the preprint does not support (see the discrepancy note in Section 10), creating a reputational and regulatory exposure if protection levels are cited before testing.

Supply chain, export control, and manufacturing scale-up risks have not yet been assessed in the sources and would need to be addressed ahead of any procurement decision.

Related Technologies

ARBOK LIQUID-ARMOR (ALA) · ARBOK EMI TEG Protection Paint · AEROGRAPH (Graphene AeroGel) · ARBOK GAS MASK · ARBOK-GUNPOWDER