New Interlayers for Higher Security Automotive Glazing

Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) is used in laminated side glass on a number of automobiles. Protection against intrusion and vandalism and reduction of interior noise are two of the major benefits of PVB laminated side glass. While standard laminated glass performs to today's specifications, testing reveals new interlayer formulations of plasticized PVB, i.e., PVB/PET/PVB composite interlayer, have resulted in laminated side glass that shows enhanced intrusion resistance performance and maintains sound insulation property of standard laminated glass. The PVB layers perform their traditional task of intrusion prevention and noise reduction, while the PET layer provides stiffness to prevent collapse or pullout. Because of its multilayer composite structure, new performance features such as improved solar protection can also be added by modifying the composite interlayer structure. This paper presents results of intrusion resistance of laminated side glass with both new interlayers and commercially available PVB interlayer, and discusses the methods used for evaluating their performance.