China has boosted its armour steel production speed by 30 per cent with continuous investment in tech upgrades, while a major American steelmaker that provided military-grade steel for tanks, ships and mine-resistant vehicles ceased operation for financial reasons.
Chinese military supplier Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group said it had solved key technical challenges to allow large-scale production of high-performance armour steel, which has been deployed for manufacturing tanks and armoured vehicles, the official Science and Technology Daily reported this month.
In the United States, steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs announced in May the indefinite closure of its Conshohocken plate finishing facility in Pennsylvania – a plant that has provided specialised armour plating for US Navy ships, army ground vehicles and thousands of mine-resistant military vehicles for decades.
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The shutdown highlights a growing gap in the industrial capacity underpinning defence manufacturing between the two nations.
Armour steel is a core material for national defence, military industries and special equipment. It possesses extreme properties such as ultra-high strength, hardness, toughness and low thermal conductivity.
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Its production has been difficult, expensive and inefficient. Project leader Duan Aiping told the newspaper that to overcome these challenges the research team had upgraded their cutting tools with an ultra-hard material and reduced production temperatures so that the tools lasted longer.
Duan said the new cutting tools were made from cubic boron nitride, a synthetic material that is almost as hard as diamond – the hardest naturally occurring mineral.