Bullet resistant glazing for Non-Residential Building Design

Bullet Resistant Glazing for Non-Residential Building Design

Safety in Buildings is of increasing importance within building design, with an increasing number of modern buildings choosing to adopt additional safety measures to buildings. An example of one of these commonly adopted safety measures is bullet resistant glass. In contrast to popular belief bulletproof glass does not actually exist, due to the fact that creating glass that is completely immune to bullets is not currently achievable. Instead glass is designed to extremely high levels of bullet protection to create ‘bullet resistant glazing’. With consumers becoming more safety conscious because of worldwide external events - as well as increasing consciousness of consumers - the number of buildings choosing to adopt the implementation of bullet resistance glass has increased.

Bullet Resistant Glass Testing

The unique set of characteristics required for glass to be labelled as being bullet resistant are extremely arduous, And subsequent tests required to achieve this status are extremely stringent. Resulting in ensuring constant high performance of this glazing specification. Glass is classified as bullet- resistance (BR 1 to BR 7) when it stops the penetration of projectiles in accordance with EN 1063. The testing procedure states that the glass being tested is shot 3 times with the appropriate weapon and calibre bullet. The test specimen must withstand the attack to enable its resistance class to be determine but also whether there has been splintering on the inner face.

Bullet Resistant Glazing Specification

Bullet resistant glass is usually constructed using a strong but transparent material such as polycarbonate thermoplastic or by using layers of laminated glass. The result is a material with an appearance and light-transmitting behaviour of standard glass enhanced with various degrees of protection from firearms. The polycarbonate layer is often sandwiched between layers of regular glass. The use of this plastic in the laminate provides impact resistance, such as protection against physical assault with a hammer or other blunt force. The glass, which is much harder than plastic, flattens the bullet and thereby prevents penetration. This type of bulletproof glass can range from 70mm to 75mm in thickness.

Bullet Resistant Glass for Schools

One of the most common adoptions of this type of glass over recent times is the installation of bullet resistant Glass into schools. This increase in prominence of schools adopting these glazing solutions, is in response to an increase in the number of safety incidents that have occurred in schools across the globe. Subsequently Revealing the importance of the implementation of bullet resistant glazing for schools, whereby the adoption of this high-performance glazing solution can have immeasurable benefits in contributing to the prevention of serious incidents occurring. Bullet resistant glazing reveals itself as a unique glazing solution with its specifications allowing for extremely high performance, if you require bullet proof glazing for a project or any specific glazing solutions contact us to see how we can best assist you.