The international technology group SCHOTT invited representatives of the German Federal Police Office, State Criminal Police, the Central Council of Jews and safety engineers from the industry to present its bulletproof fire resistant glass products at an expert summit held yesterday. Thanks to its expertise in the area of fire resistant and bulletproof glass, SCHOTT ranks as one of the world’s leading companies. The site in Jena that SCHOTT was founded at has been manufacturing fire resistant glass for 35 years – a business that helps to secure the future of the site.
“Safety glass is one of our core businesses in Jena,” Dr. Lutz Wehmeier, Managing Director of SCHOTT Technical Glass Solutions GmbH in Jena, explained in welcoming his guests. “We constantly introduce new, higher performance protective glass products to the market in this rather traditional business. Thanks to our development and manufacturing center here at the site that includes a large fire test furnace and a firing range, we are able to meet our customers’ growing safety requirements,” he added.
The innovative safety glasses PYRANOVA® secure and NOVOLAY® secure that were presented at the expert summit are considered to be the world’s first specialty glass products that successfully withstand simultaneous fire and ballistic attacks. SCHOTT became the first company to arrange for its materials to be officially tested by performing a combination of sophisticated tests. In this case, these glass products were subjected to a fire test and bullet attack immediately after one another. The test results were monitored and confirmed by two independent institutes, the Beschussamt Ulm (Bombardment Office in Ulm) and the Institute for Building Materials, Solid Construction and Fire Protection at the Technical University of Braunschweig: The glasses met both of the test standards DIN EN 1363-1 (Fire Protection) and DIN EN 1063 (Bullet Resistance).
The European legislator only requires that protective glasses meet various EN safety standards individually basis. “We wanted to go one step further, however, and demonstrate that our glass products can do more than what the existing standard requires,” Wehmeier said. “We thus became the first company in the world to voluntarily have its safety glass laminates subjected to a combination of tests.” Existing safety glasses offer protection against various types of attack, but in the case of an emergency, always against only one form of attack.
SCHOTT not only presented its new products and encouraged its guests to engage in a round of discussions at the expert summit, but also performed a live demonstration of a large-scale fire test and a firing trial. “I’m impressed,” said Christoph Öxle, who is responsible for global crisis & safety management for the Result Group in Munich. “We are always on the lookout for genuine innovations that enable us to protect our demanding customers effectively and inconspicuously. These products from SCHOTT offer us additional safety reserves. In addition, they are transparent, lightweight and thin and yet offer a high degree of protection against break-ins, gunshot, explosives, Molotov cocktails and fire.”
The development of the new safety glass range has received support from the Thuringian State Government and the European Regional Development Fund EFRE as part of the research project “2nd Generation Multifunctional Safety Glazing” (2011 FE 0156) since October 2011
