The IBD NANOTech-materials, such as nano-cristalline ceramics, nanometric steel and NANOTech-liners, form the basis for the composite materials. Special gluing processes were developed to produce nano-composite structural laminates with significantly improved strength and ballistic performance. While having a 10% lower density as the standard laminates the elastic properties are twice as high. This gives them the necessary strength to form the basis for composite parts that can be integrated into the vehicle structure and at the same time serve as ballistic protection to deal with the high threat requirements.

The availability of these structural composite laminates creates substantial potential for weight savings. There are two approaches for the application:

• The straight forward approach is to use them as add-on armour parts for mine and IED protection in wheel houses, on fenders, as mine plates and decoupled inner floors. When formed as 3D-parts they can replace other solutions that need to be assembled by welding or bolting.

• The new application is the integration of the composite parts as roof hatches, engine hatches and rear doors and ramps. These parts add up to a large portion of the total vehicle surface. Therefore the absolute weight reduction is significant. For STANAG 4569 Level 4 this saving can go up to 1,500kg on an 8x8 vehicle.

The production processes developed by IBD allow manufacturing the composite parts without the use of autoclaves. This is especially important for large parts to significantly reduce the costs. As a result the costs for the IBD composite solutions are at the same level as those for the standard technologies. The structural parts can easily be produced to fit them into the vehicle structure.