Next-Gen "Ballistic Wallpaper"

The Israeli company Achidatex is developing an improved version of the wallpaper for protecting walls and ceilings against rockets being installed in strategic Israeli facilities

Next-Gen "Ballistic Wallpaper"

A wall coated with the "ballistic wallpaper" (Photo: Achidatex)

Achidatex's "ballistic wallpaper," which has been installed in the US Pentagon, in Israeli Mossad structures, refineries, and other places, is being examined by the Israeli Homefront Command for assistance against rocket and missile blasts.

It was developed by Achidatex after the First Gulf War, and the company is working today on the next generation of the special cloth sheets that integrate Aramid, also known by its commercial name “Kevlar,” with cotton, which protects the synthetic substance from light and humidity.

The wallpaper is installed inside rooms and on ceilings similar to decorative wallpaper, only with special connection methods. It essentially operates as an envelope, and absorbs the blast waves created during an external detonation. The installation is relatively cheap, at approximately 750 NIS per square meter.

When the wall of a structure is damaged by a direct explosion or shock wave, it begins to collapse inwardly. The wallpaper helps prevent the inward collapse and protects whoever is present at that time in the room or building from the collapse as well as from wall parts and shrapnel.

Achidatex says that the wallpaper can provide protection against extremely powerful explosions and has been tested in a series of experiments with various types of explosives.
Various elements around the world have been impressed by the Israeli product, which has been installed in several parts of the Pentagon, in gas farms in Turkey. While the product is still being examined in Israel, the wallpaper has been installed in several kindergartens in Israeli towns close to the Gaza Strip.

According to Uri Nissani, CEO of the DFNS Group, which owns Achidatex, the wallpaper can be an efficient subsitute in thousands of old homes that lack protected spaces. “We are currently producing the latest generation of the material, which has even better qualities, and we are trying to see that it is used for creating protected expanses in homes where tennants lack a protected area."

Nissani additionally states that the substances’ relatively low weight allows for its installation in old structures where heavy weights and thin, nondurable ceilings cannot be installed.