Benchmark Industries is the only full service Riot Glass representative in west Texas, eastern New Mexico and the South Plains. Riot Glass is a manufacturer of retrofit security glazing systems designed to add a significant level of forced entry and/or ballistic protection to any building. Our line of patented framing and security glass infills can be installed into existing window and glass door systems to create highly effective glass protection that can withstand the most extreme conditions.

Why It Works

Riot Glass systems have been tested in rigorous laboratory conditions which include prolonged sledgehammer attacks in normal temperatures and extremely hot and cold conditions. Our framing is made from 6063 T-5 aluminum which is less rigid than other similar systems. What does that mean to you? The flexibility of our extrusions allows it to flex repeatedly in a prolonged attack without breaking, yet we can bend our framing to accommodate arched or circular windows. This provides a more reliable level of protection for maximum durability under extreme duress. 

Heavy tools such as sledgehammers or objects hurled through the air by hurricane-force winds have devastating effects on standard building materials. For a retrofit security glazing system to withstand these forces for a prolonged period, Riot Glass engineers spent many hours of trial-by-error testing to slowly develop our unique, patented framing systems that have features that absorb kinetic energy and allow it to dissipate before they can begin to weaken extrusions, fasteners, and the existing glazing system it is attached to. Our products have endured relentless laboratory and real-life tests that have shown the effectiveness of our products, repeatedly and reliably.

Riot Glass in the Wild

It’s easy to talk about Riot Glass in a “lab” setting, but seeing it in the wild proves the “real world” application.

Bullet Resistant vs Bulletproof

It’s important to note the difference between bulletproof and bullet-resistant glass because the term “bulletproof” is widely misused. 

There is really no security glazing that can be truly labeled 100% bulletproof, even the ones that are prohibitively thick, heavy, and expensive. Although a 2” thick ballistic glass is almost certainly going to stop a lot of different types of bullets, we cannot call it bulletproof. There is always a larger and heavier round that can, with enough velocity, penetrate any glass. On a practical level, you simply aren’t going to be able to put a very heavy sheet of glass into a standard structure’s window frames.

However, there are plenty of bullet-resistant glazing solutions out there that provide varying levels of protection against ballistic attacks, depending on the thickness of the sheets and their specific compositions.

Many of our bullet-resistant glass products receive a ballistic rating from the Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which is a primary organization that rates all types of commercial safety and security products.

These ballistic ratings specify the level of ballistic attack the security glazing can stand up to, including the caliber and number of bullets it can stop when fired from a certain type of firearm.

In other words, there are almost always going to be bigger, badder guns that can pierce most types of bullet-resistant glass, but you can still achieve a high level of active threat and sniper protection. 

The strength of bullet-resistant glass lies in its ability to stop rounds from many common firearms and significantly delay entry by an active threat to save lives.