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At the F.P.E.D. (Force Protection Equipment Demonstration) show on May 9-11, 2001 at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, LINE-X® PAXCON® was featured at the Air Force Research Laboratory booth and was demonstrated daily. Air Force representatives told LINE-X that we can tell "the world" that LINE-X PAXCON was the only coating, out of 27 selected, to pass all of their bomb blast tests.
At the demo site, two walls 9' x 9' were erected as the “typical construction that one would find on mobile military buildings . . . used extensively in Southwest Asia by the U.S. Military." These were constructed using 2x4 studs, 16" on center, corrugated aluminum siding and particle board paneling. As you can see from the photos, one of the two walls (the tan colored) was coated with PAXCON. In this test, 50 pounds of TNT was used at a distance of 35 feet. The uncoated wall (white) was destroyed while the PAXCON covered wall was unharmed. As you can see from the bottom right photo, the TNT left a substantial crater.
The PAXCON wall in the photos was actually used twice in testing – this was the second impact. The destroyed uncoated wall was removed and a new-uncoated one was installed for the test shown.
The Air Force Research lab, during a previous test, found that it took at least 1,000 pounds equivalent of TNT to "make PAXCON fail and even then it only tore the coating . . . fragmentation was still averted. PAXCON could save lives if applied to buildings subjected to bomb force."
According to the Air Force Research Lab, an 1/8th inch coating, front and back, reduces the "stand off distance by over 50%." And PAXCON should be used for any buildings, structures or vehicles that might get exposed to bomb impact.
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