ABSTRACT
Metals have been used extensively in armour. Generally speaking, there are only four practical metallic contenders for armour applications: aluminium, magnesium, steel and titanium. Steel and aluminium are the most common metals in use today mainly due to the price and their ability to be worked and welded. However, magnesium and titanium, although expensive, have some desirable properties that will be discussed in Sections 6.3.3 and 6.3.4. Figure 6.1 shows a summary of how most armour is made. The vast majority of armour is wrought plate. That is to say that it is processed by rolling or pressing. Some armour is cast, although this has been mostly reserved for the turrets of tanks such as the Chieftain (see Figure 6.2).
