What Is Window Security Laminate?
Window security laminate is a poly-manufactured product that is installed onto existing glass and provides a number of protective benefits. Security laminates, also known as safety films, impact resistant films, and many others, are manufactured in a variety of thicknesses and tints (or color variations). They are manufactured in rolls with a pressure-sensitive adhesive on the attachment side that strongly bonds the laminate to the glass. The installation of security laminate on glass is quite straight-forward with no necessity to replace existing glass and/or modifications to the existing frames.
Contrary to popular belief, window security laminate is NOT bullet resistant. Even though security laminate isn’t bullet resistant, it still provides a great deal of protective advantage. However, compared to bullet resistant polycarbonates, security laminate is the most affordable solution, costing about 1/7th the price. For context, a school having a $5,000 budget may get 28 SqFt of bullet resistant coverage, whereas the same $5,000 budget would give that school 227 SqFt of delayed-access laminate coverage. School buildings usually have large quantities of glass throughout their buildings construction. Because of that, hardening all of the glass at a school with bullet resistant polycarbonates is financially burdensome, perhaps feasibly impossible. Which is a big reason why several states are requiring their state’s schools have window security laminate installed on all of the glass at, and around, their entrances.
We often advise our clients to enhance their higher-risk locations with retrofit bullet resistant polycarbonate and have all of their other glass enhanced with security laminate. As each school’s floor plan and setup is different, determining which areas are higher risk comes down to 3 things: 1) a Risk Assessment, 2) a Site Security Assessment (SSA), and 3) a budget. With these in place, your district can strategize how best to harden your school’s most vulnerable access points within the available budget.
What Purpose Does Security Laminate Serve?
So, you may be wondering at this point, “If security laminate doesn’t stop bullets, what purpose does it serve?” If you think back to a time when you experienced glass breaking, you may remember the mess, not only for having to quickly but carefully clean up the sharp broken shards so one got injured, but also the headache of having an open hole where that glass used to be. Now, if security laminate was installed on that glass, the glass would most likely still break but it would stay contained within it’s original frame and shape. There would still be the need to replace the glass if it did break, however, there isn’t a dangerous mess of fractured glass that needs to be cleaned up and there wouldn’t be a big hole allowing the outside elements welcomed access to the inside.
More importantly though, when it comes to school safety and security, security laminate installed on the windows and doors would act as barriers for both, a pragmatic deterrence and an actionable defense; if the first barrier fails. The greatest benefit that security laminate provides is: It increases the amount of time and effort required for an attacker to gain access to the inside of a protected building. In other words, after-market laminated glass buys time for those who need it the most. It buys students, teachers, and staff time to respond to a threat accordingly before coming face to face with the aggressor, and it also buys time for the responding force to intervene and disrupt the threat before they are able to, hopefully, cause any amount of tragedy. In critical incidents, ever second counts and can mean the difference between a life saved and a life lost.
Regardless of what some may say, security laminate shouldn’t be labeled with a “guaranteed resistance time” that will keep the attackers out for; unless their stats are provided with the specifics of the laminate thickness and the variables used in assessing that resistance time. For example, a blunt baseball bat in the hands of a juvenile would resist an intrusion attempt much longer than an intrusion attempt of a mid-20’s adult with a fireman’s axe. In the light of this context, you can typically expect a time frame for intrusion resistance, from worst case scenario to best case scenario, 15 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes. Obviously the type and thickness of the glass, the type and thickness of the laminate, and the object(s) and force used in the attempts would all be factors in actual resistance time.
If your district is looking into security laminate and wanting to know how long a particular laminate will delay intrusion, at least to a high degree of confidence, you should have the same type of glass that is on your district’s buildings equipped with that laminate, anchor the laminates to the glass frames with the wet glaze attachment system, take them out to a range and test them using all of the most likely intrusion methods. The only way to truly know the performance capabilities on implementations is to test them as closely as possible to an actual threats potential efforts.
Security laminates are also available in a variety of tints (or colors) and percent of visible light passthrough, which provides additional privacy for those behind the glass. Unfortunately, these tint options are only available on the 8 mils laminates. Though, if you want thicker laminate for enhanced security and the privacy of tinted laminate, there are several options that will provide you with exactly what you are wanting, and needing.
Window security laminate, though not bullet resistant, provides great utility and protection for those on the inside of the glass. Does having security laminate mean your district or school won’t have mass-shooter attacks? Definitely not! Though it may offer some deterrence for a potential aggressor who’s only way in is through the laminated glass. But security laminate doesn’t do anything to actually prevent threats from taking root or being acted upon; that solution lies deep down in mental health initiatives and major societal revolutions. However, while threats continue to face our Nation’s schools, security laminate will provide additional seconds, possibly minutes, for those innocent students and staff to hopefully act in a way that it saves their lives.