Text 02Safety & Security Window Film Connecticut

Safety and security window film is a thick, optically clear film bonded to the inside face of existing glass. Kepler's is K-Shield, an 8 mil safety and security film designed to help hold shattered glass together while adding UV protection. It does not make glass unbreakable. It changes what happens after the break, keeping the fragments attached to the film instead of loose in the room.

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Ordinary glass fails by coming apart. Security film is bonded across the whole inside face, so when the pane is struck the pieces stay attached to the film and to each other, and the sheet tends to flex in the frame rather than clear out of it. That is what slows someone down and what keeps sharp fragments off the floor. It is a delay and a containment measure, not a barrier with a forced-entry rating.

For an indicative figure before you enquire, use our quick-quote page. The price it shows is illustrative and is not a quote for your project.

Ask the dealer who fits it how long to leave new film before its first clean. After that, K-Shield needs nothing unusual: a soft cloth or a clean squeegee and a mild, ammonia-free cleaner. Ammonia and abrasive pads are what damage window film.

Kept that way, the film stays clear and keeps doing its job. K-Shield carries Kepler's 10-year limited, non-transferable film-product warranty.

Marks on the outside face are a different problem; see our anti-graffiti filmpage.

Tempered glass is heat treated, and when a highly tempered pane fractures anywhere the whole piece disintegrates into small particles. Film holds those particles to itself, but the sheet can still be pushed out at the edges, because nothing is holding the film to the frame. That is why an edge attachment is commonly specified on tempered glass. Whether your glass needs one, and which system, belongs in the quotation you agree with your dealer.

Heat and glare films for commercial glass are on the commercial window tinting page.

Laminated glass is already two or more pieces of glass bonded to a resilient plastic interlayer, so it holds itself together when it breaks. Adding K-Shield to the inner face puts a further bonded layer on the assembly and adds UV protection. Kepler makes no claim about the rating of the finished assembly, so if laminated glazing is there to meet a specification, ask the maker of that glazing before you add anything to it.

Damage to the outer face is covered on our anti-graffiti filmpage.

There is no single best film, and thickness on its own is not the answer. What matters is matching the film to the glass it is going on: annealed, tempered and laminated panes break in different ways, so they are edged and finished differently. Kepler's K-Shield is an 8 mil safety and security film that also adds UV protection, and the shade and edge treatment are things to settle with the dealer quoting the job.

Heat and glare control is a separate range, on the commercial window tinting page.

Two films do two different jobs. K-Shield is fitted to the inner face of the glass, where it is designed to help hold a struck pane together. It cannot protect the external surface, because that surface is on the other side of the pane. Scratching, etching and spray paint land on the outside of the glass, and the answer there is a sacrificial outer layer that is replaced once it is marked. That layer is designed to come off; security film is designed to stay. For external damage, see our anti-graffiti film page, which covers protecting a Connecticut business from external vandalism.

In practice the two terms describe the same product. Both mean a thick film bonded to glass to hold the fragments together after a break, whether that break is a burglary, an accident or a storm. Some suppliers reserve safety for injury protection and security for forced entry, but on this page the film is K-Shield either way.

Films chosen for heat, glare and privacy are a different range, on our commercial window tinting page.

Annealed glass is ordinary float glass, cooled slowly during manufacture so it can be cut and worked afterwards. It is the weakest of the common glass types and it breaks into large, sharp shards rather than small particles. That is the failure security film handles best: the shards stay bonded to the film, so the pane cracks and sags in place instead of dropping out. An edge attachment is specified less often on annealed glass than on tempered, but that call belongs to whoever surveys and quotes the glazing.

Not always, but often on tempered glass. The film holds the broken glass to itself; an edge attachment holds the film to the frame, which is what stops a shattered pane being pushed inward as a single sheet. Tempered panes are the usual case, because they come apart into small particles across the whole pane. Annealed and laminated glass keep more of their own structure, so an attachment is specified less often, though it can still be added. There is no single right answer for every window: it depends on the frame, the glass and what the film is there to do, which is why it belongs in the quotation you agree with your dealer.

For damage to the outside face, see our anti-graffiti filmpage.