XTEK Limited has received its first international commercial order for its light-weight ballistic plates, with an order from Finland’s army.
The purchase, which is worth more than A$1 million according to XTEK, is from CPE Production Oy for eventual use with the Finnish Army.
XTEK Managing Director, Philippe Odouard that this purchase order represents a key milestone for the company in the commercialisation of the its proprietary XTclave technology.
“The qualification process undertaken, followed by a large order, is a clear execution of our strategy. We have worked very hard to ensure that the long customer cycles have progressed in parallel with the construction of the new manufacturing centre in Adelaide, to ensure that the manufacturing capability is utilised as soon as possible – and we are now very pleased to see this strategy successfully executed”, he added
According to Canberra-headquartered XTEK, CPE Production Oy is a supplier of high-performance lightweight ballistic protection solutions to the Finnish Defence Forces and other European defence customers.
XTEK had received a small purchase order in 2017 for samples of its XTclave-manufactured Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) plates for qualification purposes by the Finnish Army. The successful progression through intensive testing and validation then led to this latest order.
XTclave is a composite material curing and consolidation technology developed by XTEK that uses ultra-high isostatic pressure at elevated temperatures to achieve composite curing and/or consolidation in thermoset and thermoplastic resin systems.
The company says that the process is ideally suited to the manufacture of high-quality, void-free, precision ballistic and structural composite solutions including armour, lightweight tactical and human load carriage equipment, robotic mechanical systems and unmanned craft. It has previously received Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority (SICP) grants from the Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) for its work.
