X-Flex Bomb-proof Wallpaper Could Save Your Life
November 18, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Product & Book Reviews
X-flex bomb-proof wallpaper is one of the most incredible inventions I’ve seen. Imagine a kevlar-type wallpaper that makes rooms and buildings, nearly indestructible.
X-Flex is a new kind of wallpaper: one that’s quite possibly stronger than the wall it’s on. Invented by Berry Plastics in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this lifesaving adhesive is designed for use anyplace that’s prone to blasts and other lethal forces, like in war or natural-disaster zones, chemical plants or airports. To keep a shelter’s walls from collapsing in an explosion and to contain all the flying debris, you simply peel off the wallpaper’s sticky backing, apply the rollable sheets to the inside of brick or cinder-block walls, and reinforce it with fasteners at the edges. Covering an entire room can take less than an hour.
X-Flex bonds so tightly, it helps walls keep their shape after blast waves. Two layers are strong enough to stop a blunt object, like a flying 2×4, from knocking down drywall. During our tests, just a single layer kept a wrecking ball from smashing through a brick wall. The wallpaper’s strength and ductility is derived from a layer of Kevlar-like material sandwiched by sheets of elastic polymer wrap. The combination works so well that the Army is now considering wallpapering bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Civilians could soon start remodeling too—Berry Plastics plans to develop a commercial version next year.
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OMG,
I want this now! Having lived and visited places where events happen, this would have been a life saver.
Now if we can just develop an EMP resistant material and integrate it with this for ultimate protection. If properly warned I could huddle up with my iMac, laptop and wait out the blast.
Oh yeah, I will need to enough for my family as well!
Dan
8^-)
That would be absolutely great, in about a dozen places worldwide. Not likely to save my life. Not likely to save most people’s lives. Explosives going off in a building… even in a war zone… just not that common.
Its a ridiculous thing to defend against for most people, in most situations, most everywhere. If you are that paranoid, you should not buy this, you should seek professional psychiatric help.
I think Mr. Carpenter lacks a bit of imagination. I can see at least a few legitimate civilian uses for this product. It occurs to me that this product could also be useful for protecting buildings against collapse induced by hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes.
Three little pigs comes to mind.
Actually the wolf, who will find a way.
But yes great product with lots of app potential.
I think the idea is great. However can you say something is “Bomb-Proof” when you are hitting it with a small demo ball? Granted, I am sure the ball weighs upwards of 50 – 100 lbs. but the forces generated by an explosion are far greater. I would like to see some further testing done using some explosives to see if it truly “Bomb-Proof”.
It’s great for military or even high secure civilian applications, such as banks, or like cia langley kinda thing (Although they just use enough concrete it can survive a nuke as it is). As far as earthquake coverage it would give a very minimal if any advantage or standard building practices. The problem lies in that most building when an earthquake hits either tip (which proper bracing is used to counter act, Foundations, butresses, etc.) or the walls crack internally, now if this happens the exterior tape will be use less as it uses the friction of the walls interior in order to maintain shape and thus strength. Without the tensile tension of the ‘paper’ it loses its effectiveness.