You have a few rolls of supposedly bomb-proof wallpaper, so how do you test it out without getting a visit from Homeland Security? You paste it up and break out a wrecking-ball, of course. That’s what the folks at Popular Science did to test out X-FLEX, a reinforced wall-covering made from a Kevlar-like material.
X-FLEX is a a Kevlar-like composite sandwiched between polymer sheets. You peel off the back, stick it to the wall and, if you are extra sensible, you let it run over to the floor and ceiling where it should be further secured by nailing it down. When a bomb-blast (or giant metal ball) smashes into the brickwork, the wallpaper holds it in place, keeping the wall intact and preventing it from becoming shrapnel. It’s kind of like taping your windows to stop them from shattering, only a whole lot beefier.
Oddly enough, the video on the X-FLEX site of the wallpaper absorbing an actual bomb-blast is not nearly as spectacular or as entertaining as the Pop-Sci video (it is also non-embeddable, which is why you don’t see it here). The material is clearly made with military uses in mind, but we’re thinking of putting some of this up outside the Wired.com video-gaming room — things can get pretty nasty in there, especially when we (inevitably) thrash the guys from Wired mag.
Product page [X-FLEX via Oh Gizmo!]
X-Flex Blast Protection System [Pop-Sci]
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