"Bulletproof" (or impact "proof") window film

Ed Ricketts

Ed Ricketts

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Anybody out there a fount of knowledge on this topic? I hope nobody's going to be shooting at our house, though ya never know...BUT I live in kansas! We have tornadoes, high winds, hail & windblown debris every year. There are burglaries in our county every year, & many achieve entry by breaking glass. Factor in this stuff & maybe a few other occasional non-windy accidents, & i think it starts to make a lotta sense.

Any info would be appreciated, but for starters: Are some brands better or worse? What's the best company to deal with? How hard is it to install yourself? If affordable, would a layer both inside and outside the glass give better protection than 1 layer? How much better?
 
You will find neither bulletproof nor impact proof film, what you can find is a product called "shatter resistant" or "fragment retention" film which can be added to your windows. It will not stop a bullet. The material will help protect against shattering due to direct impacts from objects, thieves, vandals, storms and even explosive force.

3M is the leading supplier in the USA and the films come in various grades.

In addition to just adding the film, you should definitely bond the film/glass directly to the frames so that the entire pane cannot be kicked-out or otherwise removed. This is done using a a bonder that is applied just like caulk.

I suggest that you begin your investigations online and work out a budget for what level of security you want.
 
The material will help protect against shattering due to direct impacts from objects, thieves, vandals, storms and even explosive force.
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Car theft in my country are rampant;
The rear motorists with cut-resistant sleeves dove straight into your side window as the car stopped at red light; whole process took less than 2 seconds and they fled off with your handbag off the passenger seat.

For the female drivers who always carelessly place their cash-stashed bag too visibly, the shatter-resistance film is what you want. According to the market, many claimed to withstand hammer blows as much as 70 times.
Spare the notions you could deploy your clubs or pepper spray. It's too late when the trap's all set. Prevention is what it should have been.
 
There used to be a show on one of the TV networks I think called "It Takes a Thief" where they would come out and burglarize your home. Then give all your stuff back and let you see how they broke in and make recommendations about how to make your residence more resistant to theft, and then come back within a month and try to break in again.

They had some sort of clear film they installed on the basement daylight windows to keep people from kicking, punching them in. Should be able to find it somewhere on the net.

A quick look at the 3M FAQs shows that just like locks and such, you have to look at the totality of the object. The most smash resistant glass is worthless if the window frame can be easily defeated.
 
In several of our Company buildings we have had a window film called Armorcoat installed for over 20 years and the film is still looking good and doing its job. It was expensive but we used it for hurricane protection on windows that could not be protected by storm shutters. It is very thick film compared to the stuff you usually see put on cars and will withstand a direct impact with a baseball bat. We tested it ourselves on large pieces of glass and the bat would bounce off. It took several very hard gorilla swings to get the glass to even begin to shatter but the film would still hold it together. Sometimes the glass itself would come out of the frame without breaking. It is best if used on both sides of the glass.

It is critical that the glass itself be inserted very deep into the window frame or a hard impact would just push the glass out of the frame in one piece without breaking the glass.
Also, the glass frame itself needs to be very strongly secured to the wood or concrete structure or the whole frame with glass will come out in one piece if hit very hard and the glass still would not break. It is definitely not bullet proof, just impact resistant.
 
alex said:
It is critical that the glass itself be inserted very deep into the window frame or a hard impact would just push the glass out of the frame in one piece without breaking the glass.
Also, the glass frame itself needs to be very strongly secured to the wood or concrete structure or the whole frame with glass will come out in one piece if hit very hard and the glass still would not break. It is definitely not bullet proof, just impact resistant.
Click to expand...

This is why there is a separate product called a "bonder" that is applied like caulk. You run it along the edge where the film/glass contacts the frame. This seals everything together into one piece so the pane won't pop-out.
 
CWL, i suspected something similar might be the case, that's why i put "bulletproof" in quotes. However, a net search reveals vendors with plenty of big talk about "bulletproof". This site (http://www.cjbuffer.com/) says BULLETPROOF in the come-on, but if you read further, they start talking like "bullet-resistance up to __ with _ mm glass".
However, since tornadoes/wind/etc is my main concern, i think even just holding the glass fragments together (to avoid the significant danger of dozens of razor sharp high speed shards of flying glass) would be a big improvement here in tornado alley.

Can anybody tell me any more about the different grades available and how to compare them? Anything other than thickness?
 
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