Frost it, number it, brand it — over security film

Every building that installs security film asks the same question a week later: now how do we put the room numbers back? Or the privacy band, the visitor decal, the mascot? The industry answer is “you can’t” — anything stuck to security film pulls at it when it comes off, and a lifted edge is a warranty problem.

A county government building in Albuquerque, New Mexico is where Epic worked out a better answer.

Two problems on one pane of glass

The building needed 3M security film on its street-level glass for forced-entry and blast mitigation. That part was routine for us: 3M Scotchshield S2400, attached to the frame with the Epic Method. The complication was behind the glass. The workstations along that wall carried sensitive information on their screens, in full view of the sidewalk. The county needed privacy at screen height and daylight everywhere else — and it needed the security film to stay exactly as installed.

Frost film on its own would have solved the privacy problem and created a new one: you cannot bond a second film to security film and expect to take it off again without pulling at the film underneath.

The layer we developed

Epic prints the frost — or a graphic, a door number, a security decal — on a removable-adhesive PET film we developed for exactly this. It bonds to the installed security film without affecting it, holds up to daily use and cleaning, and when the floor plan changes it peels off clean: no residue, no lifted edge, the security film underneath exactly as we left it, and Epic stands behind the layer and its removal.

In Albuquerque that meant a custom-printed frost band at screen height, continuous around the floor — offices, conference room, public counter — cut on Epic Precision, printed at VisuFlare and installed by the same crews that installed the security film. From the sidewalk the screens are gone and the band reads as etched glass. From the desk, the view above and below is untouched.

Where it has gone since

The same process has since numbered every classroom window across a Colorado school district, over the security film — double-sided numbers that read from the corridor and from the parking lot, which is what first responders and bus drivers actually need — with the district’s security decals in the entry glass. We also made the district reusable holders on the same media, so a school can post a flyer on the glass for a day, a week or a month, take it down and use the holder again. When a room number changes, it is a quick visit, not a film replacement.

If you have signage going up on filmed glass, send us the list before anyone reaches for the tape. The full set of photos, the process and the FAQ are on the Graphics over Security Film page, and the care rules for filmed glass are at epiccos.com/care.

Ask about graphics over security film