Washington, D.C. – May 11, 2023 – With so many U.S. state and school districts being impacted by sudden violence from outside intruders with weapons, the nonprofit International Window Film Association (IWFA) has issued a brochure: Security Window Film and Schools: Learn the Facts.

“Safety and security window films should be one of the first considerations as an effective way to slow down wrongful entry, giving school personnel and law enforcement more time to react,” said Darrell Smith, executive director of the IWFA.

“Unfortunately schools have become targets of violent attackers, but next to employing trained personnel and other conventional security measures, security window film may be considered as one of the highest impact, low-cost steps that can be taken to help protect our children and school personnel,” added Smith.

Security window film can be quickly installed, often in a day or less, and it is a highly- engineered polyester film composite that undergoes various testing and treatments to provide a reliable degree of safety. Each IWFA member Window Film manufacturer extensively tests their products to ascertain individual performance and ensure continued durability.

Security window films are usually tested to the following standards: Impact: ANSI Z97.1-2015 impact testing for annealed glass with applied security film. Attack: Test UL 972 tests the glass to film system regarding the resistance to a manual attack, such as forced entry. Blast: International Standard ISO 16933, ASTM blast tests determine the blast mitigation capabilities of the glass-film-system.

When properly installed, security window film forms an almost invisible protective coating or membrane on the interior side of the glass surface. The film is attached to the glass with an aggressive pressure sensitive adhesive and may also have other ways of securing the film to the window frame itself.