Background

Laminate glass films suffer from an inherent trade off between the strength, weight, and optical transparency. Ballistic and blast protection can be improved by adding thicker or additional layers of glass or plastic, but at the expense of reduced optical transparency and increased physical weight. New materials are desired that, when incorporated into standard architectures, yield higher optical transparency for the same protection.

Technology

This invention is a system and method for making a novel laminate composition and architecture which incorporates graphene films for ballistic laminates which are lighter weight, stronger, and more transparent than the current state of the art. This technology uses graphene films with laminate glass to increase the strength of the laminate without sacrificing the weight and transparency of the laminate. Graphene films combine mechanical strength, electrical mobility, and optical transparency (2.3% absorption per layer over all visible wavelengths) into one material. Due to these properties, graphene films can be used to increase the strength of laminate glass. More specifically, using graphene with laminate glass can improve impact resistance by 39% while still being lightweight and optically transparent.

Advantages

Graphene's mechanical strength means that incorporation of the films into laminated ballistic glass panels could enable weight reduction by reducing the thickness requirements for the other glass and/or polymer layers - Graphene's cost Relative To other metal film options and its Potential for reducing the thickness of surrounding glass and polymer layers and the easy integration and Method of production into existing manufacturing methods make cost reduction Relative To the state of the art very likely

Application

Suitable for for applications in military & security and use in buildings such as banks and hospitals.