Socorro, New Mexico, USA – Explosive experts and university researchers at New Mexico Tech’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) conducted a series of blast tests that confirmed the extensive protection capabilities of a new blast-resistant coating developed by LINE-X ® Corporation and marketed under the PAXCON ® brand.
Using TNT and C4 blasts, EMRTC explosive experts conducted the tests on two identical concrete structures, one unprotected and one protected with the PAXCON blast-resistant coating. Each structure contained an office setting, complete with a crash-test dummy, desk and computer equipment. The tests were conducted in August 2004.
“The dummy in the protected room was unscathed,” said Alan Perryman, EMRTC’s Research Engineer and Test Specialist. “A little dust kicked up, and the wall flexed and pounded like a giant drum, but everything held up just fine. We at EMRTC are very impressed with the way the LINE-X protected room held up.”
The unprotected structure was devastated. The blast destroyed the entire wall and tore apart the crash test dummy. “If there were people in this room, there certainly would have been fatalities,” said Perryman.
The dummy’s body was riddled with building fragments and debris. Flying building fragments act as shrapnel in these types of blasts, in which terrorists design the bombs to leverage the actual building structure as a weapon.
LINE-X, well known for its LINE-X Spray-On Truck Bedliners, recently applied this special anti-terror formulation to the walls of the U.S. Federal Building, the Washington D.C. Naval Base and the Federal Courthouse in New York City.
Known in military and research circles as an Energy Resistant Coating (ERC), LINE-X’s PAXCON coating is flexible yet stronger than steel. Walls coated with PAXCON can withstand explosions up to 20 times greater than what a normal, uncoated wall can withstand. The coating holds numerous types of structural materials together – wood, steel, dry wall, concrete, brick and more. Bombed walls flex, but stay together.
“These tests demonstrate the incredible strength of the LINE-X treated building,” LINE-X said after studying the independent test data. “The product is truly revolutionary. It could re-align the dynamics of terrorism and defense in the Middle East.”
The EMRTC tests were the first specific demonstrations of previously classified tests by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the US Air Force. Special ballistics videotaping crews captured the event with high-speed equipment. “The slow motion video shows the LINE-X wall flexing inwards then snapping back to its original position and shape,” said Perryman. “The spray-on ERC gives the wall incredible strength and elastic properties.”
Since the Khobar Towers bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in June 1996, the U.S. Government has been testing elastomeric polymers such as LINE-X’s PAXCON coating for blast mitigation. The PAXCON coating was found to be the only coating of 27 tested to pass all the bomb blast tests conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory Force Protection Branch. These original, classified tests found that it took at least 1,000 pounds equivalent of TNT to make LINE-X coating fail. Even then, the explosion only tore the coating, and fragmentation was still averted. The final report recommended that PAXCON be used on any buildings, structures or vehicles that might be exposed to terrorist bomb attacks.
The chemical compounds and application techniques used within PAXCON are environmentally safe. The product contains no chloro fluorocarbons (CFCs). “It’s one of the few spray-on products that is literally free of environmental dangers,” according to LINE-X engineers. “Even as California raises the restrictions on CFCs, PAXCON will always be compliant because it doesn’t have any. We’re automatically compliant with anything the regulatory agencies can come up with.”
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EMRTC, part of New Mexico Tech University, is a world renowned research, development, test and evaluation complex of more than 30 test facilities located within its 40 square mile research complex, about one hour south of Albuquerque. The organization has a well-earned reputation for high quality, responsive, cost effective and technically reliable work.
LINE-X Spray-On Truck Bedliners is one of the world's leading spray-on truck bedliner companies, with more than 550 franchised locations worldwide. LINE-X product applications extend into a wide range of business areas, including the automotive, construction, agricultural and military sectors. LINE-X Corporation is headquartered in Santa Ana, California. For more information please visit www.LineX.com and www.Paxcon.com.
CONTACT:
Steve Decker
Vice President of PAXCON and Special Applications
Line-X Franchise Development Corporation
(301) 862-7717 office
(714) 474-9130 cell
steve@linexcorp.com
