I have been in the window film business for over 20 years now, and have seen many different things, both good and bad, done by our industry. I believe the worst thing though is talking customers out of attachment, or using attachment incorrectly. I’ve heard salesman tell people that attachment just isn’t necessary. I’ve seen installers leave an eighth inch bead of attachment around a window. I have even seen attachment that looks good, but has been hollowed out in the finishing process. All of these give the customer only slightly more security then was had before.

Let’s tackle these issues one at a time. As far as “not needing attachment.” Any company pushing this, is just flat out crooked. In our testing, on tempered glass with film alone, we see only about 5-8 seconds of protection. Our customer base is schools, churches, and military installation, and I do not believe they are only looking to gain a few seconds. Many companies will say you don’t need it, because they don’t know how to install it correctly,  or don’t want to increase their costs by selling the correct product.

I’ve seen many jobs that had “attachment”, but it was done so poorly or incorrectly, that it wasn’t doing the client any good at all. When an installer leaves attachment that is too thin or hollowed out, it adds a few extra seconds, but not what could be added with correctly installed product. The attachment needs to be thick enough, and bonded to enough of the film and the frame to hold under impact. When installed incorrectly, there is not enough tensile strength to actually stand up to forced entry. 

It is important to know the differences in quality when shopping for a security product. We depend on these products to protect our children, our families, and our coworkers, in a worst case scenario. Correctly installed attachment, on a quality security film, can provide up to several minutes of protection, giving valuable response time for security teams or law enforcement to arrive.