Blast Resistant Glass

Where protection against possible blasts or explosive attacks is required to a project, London Architectural Glass can provide Blast resistant glass to help protect internal occupants and property.

It is widely understood that one of the greatest risks to life and injury under an explosive attack is flying glass. Blast resistant glass is used to reduce the amount of flying glass, or spawl, emitted from a glass installation in the event of an explosive attack.

The Construction of Blast Resistant Glass

Blast resistant glass is constructed from layers of toughened glass laminated together, with either a normal PVB interlayer or a stronger Sentry interlayer. In the event of an explosive attack, the energy of the explosive blast is absorbed by the interlayer within the glass. The glass will break but the interlayer allows expansion of the glass panel without large amounts of glass spawl.

The blast resistance of specific glass constructions is determined and identified by EN 13541, which tests glass units to simulate high explosive detonations of 10kg to 2500kg TNT at differing distances of 35m to 50m away from the glass. The glass units to be tested for blast resistance are placed within a shock wave tube to focus the energy of the model explosive force onto the glass face. The resulting blast resistant glass classifications results range from ER1 to ER4, determined by the force and pressure of the blast the glass withstood.

It must be understood that these security classifications refer to the glass alone and for a full understanding of the security and safety of these glass installations, the frame and fixing methods of the installation must be taken into account as well.

Contact London Architectural Glass today to find out how we can help you with your upcoming project.