3M Solutions for Schools
3M Company offers multiple solutions to increase the security and productivity of any school.
Delaying Forced Entry
Tragic active shootings have forced educators and administrators to rethink school safety. An active shooter looking to cause harm can easily gain entry into a school by shooting a window’s glass and walking through the resulting window opening. That is how Adam Lanza and Aiden Hale entered Sandy Hook Elementary (Sandy Hook, CT) and The Covenant School (Nashville, TN), respectively.
3M Safety & Security Window Films with Impact Protection Adhesive can help prevent unwanted entry by hardening a school's glazing. While window film will not stop a bullet (no window film will on its own, no matter what you read), it is designed to hold shattered glass in place to help slow down an intruder. Delayed entry not only gives first responders more time to react, but also gives students and teachers more time to seek safety. The installation of 3M Safety & Security Window Films to exterior and interior school windows can be an effective and inexpensive way to keep students and staff safe from bad people.
Glass Hardening
Heavy glass usage in a school building is a double-edged sword. On one hand, large windows provide students and faculty with necessary sunlight throughout the day. Additionally, glazing can give those inside visibility to outside dangers, allowing emergency personnel to be contacted sooner rather than later. However, many attackers gain entry into a school through entry / exit glass doors or large windows.
Making perimeter glass resistant to forced entry can help maintain the aforementioned benefits of glass-intensive curtain walls while also delaying attackers who would otherwise gain entry without much effort. This gives students, faculty, and administration more time to implement any emergency plans in place.
3M Safety & Security Window Film Solutions
Schools throughout the country have been using 3M’s strongest and toughest security films (ULTRA S800, Safety S140, and S2400) coupled with its Impact Protection Adhesive (IPA) as part of their glass hardening strategies for many years.
3M’s security films are clear and transparent, providing near-invisible protection to help hold broken glass in place, no matter what the trauma (blunt force, firearm, bomb blast, seismic, windstorm, and spontaneous). These tough and tear-resistant films have helped to protect people, property, and continuity of operations since the late 1960s.
A New Generation
In 2024, 3M introduced its Scotchshield Safety & Security Window Film System S2400, which marks a new era in the fragment retention film market. That's because this new and innovative film is manufactured of urethane, which is more flexible than traditional PET-based films and provides substantially greater Elongation at Break (560%). That translates into greater tear resistance and performance in certain applications and situations. 3M S2400 has been tested to the following standards:
- 16 CFR 1201
- ANSI Z97.1
- UL 972
- ASTM F1233
3M Safety & Security Window Films, such as S2400, are not tested to ASTM F3561-22. Please read 3M’s technical bulletin explaining why.
3M School Safety Case Study
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Funding for School Safety
Don't let budget get in the way of securing your educational facility. EPD can help navigate the funding process, including:
- Grant Writing Assistance
- Contract Vehicles
- Purchasing Cooperatives
Improving Energy Efficiency, Privacy, & Aesthetics in Schools
Increasing Productivity in Schools
Whiteboards encourage collaboration among others and there is no higher need for collaboration than in education. The free exchange and progression of ideas best occurs when there is a written record. Enter the whiteboard – a great way to write (and erase) for all others to see.
3M manufactures a film that simulates a whiteboard dry-erase surface which can be installed on glass or any non-porous flat surface, including existing old or damaged whiteboards.
