Phil Gotts from PGC Ltd hired Slowmo to provide high speed images for a series of firings testing the bullet impact properties of ceramic tiles as used in personal body armour.
Due to the brittle nature of the tiles and the high bullet velocities, an ultra-high frame rate was one of the prerequisites for the filming. In addition, simultaneous entry and exit points were required. This called for 2 x Photron SA-X2 mono high speed cameras.
A frame rate of 135,000fps (1/400,000s shutter) was selected which resulted in a resolution of 256 x 248 pixels, the square format perfectly suited the similarly shaped tiles. Slowmo’s new powerful LED floodlights, producing >2KW tungsten light equivalent, were used to illuminate the front and back views. The cameras produced clear images showing great detail of the bullet impact and destruction of the tile together with bullet exit characteristics.
