Regeneratus provides active phase‑change ballistic armor that switches from a flexible soft‑armor state to a rigid hard‑plate state on demand, using a 1 mm Nitinol core heated by Joule heating to achieve 700 MPa strength.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Current personal ballistic protection forces a trade‑off between mobility and blunt‑force trauma mitigation. Soft Level IIIA armor allows movement but transmits high backface deformation on impact, while hard Level IV plates stop trauma but add weight and restrict biomechanics.
Solution
Regeneratus offers an active phase‑change ballistic armor that can switch from a flexible soft‑armor state to a rigid hard‑plate state on demand. A thin 1 mm Nitinol core is heated by Joule heating to enter a high‑strength Austenite phase, providing hard‑plate level backface deformation protection while retaining the low‑weight profile of soft armor. Upon impact, the heated core locally reverts to the ductile Martensite phase, dispersing kinetic energy across a staged composite stack that includes a shattering carbon‑fiber strike face, a thermal firewall, and a UHMWPE energy‑capture backer. The system maintains baseline NIJ Level IIIA protection without power and achieves sub‑second activation in the field, delivering both high mobility and high survivability.
Target Audience
Primary customers are military and law‑enforcement units, as well as security contractors, that require both high mobility and effective blunt‑force trauma mitigation in personal protective equipment.
Features
- 1 mm solid Nitinol core that transitions from ductile Martensite (~250 MPa) to rigid Austenite (>700 MPa) via rapid Joule heating
- Dual polyimide heating pads delivering ~28 W at 16.8 V for sub‑second phase change
- Staged composite stack: carbon‑fiber strike face, active Nitinol core, thermal firewall, UHMWPE backer, and composite constraint shell for layered energy dispersion
- Superelastic kinetic dispersion where impact‑induced stress reverts Austenite to Martensite, spreading force and reducing backface deformation
- Retains NIJ Level IIIA baseline protection even when power is lost, thanks to the UHMWPE energy‑capture layer
- Lightweight profile comparable to soft armor, preserving operator mobility while providing hard‑plate level blunt‑force protection when activated