Imagine: a hurricane is barreling towards your house, but instead of hiding in the basement, you can stay safely and comfortably in your living room, all thanks to your X-Flex Blast Protection System wallpaper. It’s not a fantasy; the wallpaper, invented by Berry Plastics in a partnership with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, actually exists — and a single sheet is strong enough to stop a wrecking ball.
The X-Flex wallpaper is an adhesive with sticky backing that attaches to the inside of brick and cinder walls. According to its designers, covering an entire room takes less than an hour. The wallpaper is so effective that a single layer can keep a wrecking ball from smashing through a brick wall, and a double layer can stop blunt objects (i.e. a flying 2×4) from knocking down drywall.
So how does it work? The X-Flex system features Kevlar-like material in between two sheets of elastic polymer wrap. Apparently, that’s all it takes to keep a wrecking ball from taking down your house.
The Army is already thinking about using the wallpaper on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Berry Plastics plans to sell a commercial version of X-Flex next year.
OK, this seems really cool in certain applications, but you can see from the (admittedly thrilling) video that they’re being a bit misleading about its application. That stuff in the video isn’t GLUED to the wall, like wallpaper, it’s anchored top and bottom with an anchored steel channel. You’d get the same result if you used a wire mesh installed in this way.
So is the actual adhesive any good, does it get the same result? Or are they calling it “wallpaper” to make it seem like a newer, cooler innovation than a simple blast net?
I’m against using plastics except in specific life-saving applications like the medical field. If lining the insides of military bases and embassy buildings with wire mesh – that can be melted down and reused – achieves the same goal, why produce more plastic?