How can a soft sided polymer material offer the same protection offered by hard shell materials like steel or aluminum?
A. Florida requires that ASTM tests be conducted by independent laboratories to determine resistance to flying objects [shooting 2x4s at the material]; tests to determine the amount of wind load a protection product can withstand [how hard/fast is the wind blowing at the protection]; test on how long a protection product will last under fluctuating wind loads [how long will the protection stand up in a storm before it fails]. As it was with automobiles, so is the progression in hurricane protection. First came the steel body, then the aluminum body and today car bodies are virtually all polymer based. So if you think about car bodies being made of polymers today [rather than steel or aluminum], it is easier to see why polycarbonate, which is a polymer, and ArmorPanelT can be as strong or stronger than steel or aluminum. That said, steel panels, aluminum panels, polycarbonate panels and ArmorPanelT panels all must undergo and pass the exact same tests to be approved by the Florida Build
