News
Canadian company first to achieve international standard

Canadian company Frame/Lok Limited based in Kelowna, British Columbia,
has become one of the first Canadian companies to pass a strategic
bomb-blast protection test for a new international safety glazing
standard – EXV 33 ISO/DIS draft 16933 Glass in Building Explosion Resistant Security Glazing.

Canadian company Frame/Lok Limited based in Kelowna, British Columbia, has become one of the first Canadian companies to pass a strategic bomb-blast protection test for a new international safety glazing
standard – EXV 33 ISO/DIS draft 16933 Glass in Building Explosion Resistant Security Glazing.

The standard will become the internationally recognized specification for those who have a requirement to provide the highest level of security and protection to glazing in particularly high-risk areas.

Company president Paul Poirier is the inventor of the Frame/Lok system.

The exercise, carried out by explosive testing specialists Advantica at its facility at RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria UK, involved subjecting a fully glazed window to an explosive blast equivalent to 100 kilograms of TNT at a distance of 31 metres.

The window provided by Pentagon FilmTek featured 6mm float glass protected with FT 800-200 micron multi-laminate security film secured into the frame with the Frame/Lok edge retention system.

Following conclusion of the testing, the entire combined system achieves a classification in accordance with ISO and UK Home Office Scientific Development Branch standards and an equivalent Level 3A GSA standard of Low Hazard and High Protection. All specimens received a reflected pressure on the impact face of 58kPa (8.52psi) and a reflected impulse loading of 327kPa/millisecond (48.07psi/milli-second).

Steve Rice, the glazing director of the UK Glass and Glazing Federation, commended the edge retention combination as “a significant achievement in the development of glazing and security products.”

Frame/Lok president, Paul Poirier says the ISO testing will soon become the main program that will replace the GSA already in place in the US. “The GSA requirement is only four pounds per square inch to pass. The ISO is a program that is required by the UK government to see at what overpressure window film and anchoring can withstand before leaving the opening for a non-mechanical system, which means no screws, that is capable to withstand 100 kilograms of TNT at 31 metres. Frame/Lok is the first to pass,” he says, adding that his company is the only Canadian company to achieve this level of certification for a non-mechanical edge retention system.

For North America it is called the Frame/Lok and Pentagon Select attachment system; for international markets the Frame/Lok attachment is called Pentagon Select.

“We are proud to be the first Canadian manufacturer to introduce this type of attachment and our goal with this product is to save lives, reduce property loss against theft and the forces of nature,” says Poirier.

The test results for the international safety glazing standard – EXV 33 ISO/DIS draft 16933 Glass in Building Explosion Resistant Security Glazing can be viewed at the company’s website at: www.framelok.com -end-