How Does Bulletproof Glass Work?
At first glance, bullet-resistant glass looks identical to an ordinary pane of glass, but that’s where the similarities end. An ordinary piece of glass shatters when struck by a single bullet. Bullet resistant glass is designed to withstand one or several rounds of bullets depending on the thickness of the glass and the weapon being fired at it. So, what gives bullet-resistant glass the ability to stop bullets? Different manufacturers make different variations of bullet-resistant glass, but it is basically made by layering a polycarbonate material between pieces of ordinary glass in a process called lamination. This process creates a glass-like material that is thicker than normal glass. Polycarbonate is a tough transparent plastic — often known by the brand name Lexan, Tuffak or Cyrolon. Bullet-resistant glass is between 7 millimeters and 75 millimeters in thickness. A bullet fired at a sheet of bullet-resistant glass will pierce the outside layer of the
