BlastWrap – Blast-Dampening Material
To contain the force of an exploding bomb, you need steel plate or concrete, and lots of it, right? Not according to a BlastGard International Inc., a startup in Clearwater, Fla., that makes a blast-dampening material out of volcanic glass, sealed in food-packaging plastic.
The material, called BlastWrap, already lines the insides of 192 trash cans in the Washington Metro system.
According to BlastGard, the cans can withstand the explosive force of more than 12 pounds of high explosives without coming apart. That’s eight times as much explosive as steel-reinforced trash cans regularly sold as blast-resistant.
BlastWrap is filled with grains of perlite, a volcanic mineral much like pumice. When perlite is heated, water trapped in the grains makes them expand, “popping” them like popcorn. These expanded pellets are used in potting soil, because they both aerate the soil and retain water.
BlastWrap takes advantage of another useful property of expanded perlite: it’s kind of like the crumple zone of a car. When crushed, it yields a bit, but still stands up to more crushing.
“It will offer resistance till it’s literally crushed to talcum powder,” says Jack Waddell, president of BlastGard.
Source: MSNBC.
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