ASTM F3561 and Retrofit Security Film: What the Standard Tests, and What It Does Not

The short answer

ASTM F3561 is a laboratory test method for complete, factory-built window, door and modular panel systems. The system is weakened with ten rifle rounds in a set pattern, then struck by a 100-pound pendulum at rising energies until a six-inch sphere can pass through, and the whole system — glass, frame, anchors and hardware — earns a forced-entry resistance rating from Level 1 to Level 8. It was not written for security film applied to glass that is already in a building, and both 3M and the International Window Film Association say so in writing. Epic agrees with them. Epic has also had its installed system tested to the standard at an accredited laboratory — not to claim a rating, but so that a purchasing officer who is required to ask has third-party data instead of a shrug. Both halves of that sentence are on this page.

If you are here because an RFP or a specification cites F3561 and you install security film, protect glass for a living, or have to evaluate a bid, skip to what to do when a spec cites ASTM F3561.

What ASTM F3561 is

The full title is Standard Test Method for Forced-Entry-Resistance of Fenestration Systems After Simulated Active Shooter Attack. ASTM International’s Committee F12 on Security Systems and Equipment approved it on August 1, 2022 (F3561-22) and has revised it twice since; the current edition is F3561-25. Its scope says it is “intended primarily for manufacturers to test and rate their windows, doors, modular panels, glazings, and similar products,” that it “is a laboratory test to be performed on full systems and therefore not applicable for field testing,” and that it “is not to be used for ballistic resistant glazing rating.” The test runs in two phases on the complete assembly:

1. Weakening. Ten 5.56 mm M193 rounds are fired at the glazing in a fixed pattern — an 18-inch circle, then two near the center — and, where there is a lock, a second pattern at the locking hardware. The rounds are expected to pass through; the standard says test projectiles “are permitted to perforate the entire specimen.” This phase is not a bullet-resistance test. It is there to put holes in the glazing before the real test starts.
2. Impact. A 100-pound (45 kg) pendulum with a hemispherical nose is dropped against the weakened system from rising heights. Each height is a level; the system must take two consecutive impacts at a height to earn that level. The test ends when the impactor passes through, when the damage lets a rigid 6-inch sphere pass with no more than 4 pounds of force, or when an operable unit opens far enough to pass the sphere. The test is not timed.

Levels, drop heights and energies as tabulated in ASTM F3561-22; two consecutive impacts at a height are required to earn the level. ASTM’s own text governs; this table is a reader’s summary.

Two more lines of the scope matter for what follows. Systems must be tested “as complete units in a test frame or fielded conditions,” and anything less than a complete system — a component — may be tested under the standard’s Appendix X1 and receives “a capability statement for the component, but not a system rating per this standard.” In plain terms: a rating belongs to a whole window or door product, built and sold as a unit. Nothing applied to somebody else’s glass can inherit one.

Why it does not apply to retrofit window film

Security window film is applied to glass that is already installed, in frames the film maker did not design, with anchors, hardware and glass bite the film does not change. Film’s job is to hold the broken glass together and, when it is attached to the frame, to hold the broken pane in the opening. It is a glass-retention product. F3561 rates the whole opening — and the whole opening is not what a film company is supplying.

The two organizations that matter have both said this plainly:

• The International Window Film Association, in ASTM F3561 – 22: An Explanation: “Neither installed window film nor retrofit glazing incorporated into existing framing or doors is covered,” and using the test to assume how such glazing would perform “is not an allowed use of the standard.” The IWFA adds that the test “lends no credibility to any bulletproof claims.”
• 3M, in its September 2024 technical bulletin on the standard for its Safety & Security Window Films: “The ASTM F3561-22 test method was not designed to evaluate retrofit building window film,” and “This standard does not apply to retrofit building window films.” 3M tells its dealers not to use the standard in the promotion, marketing or specification of its films.

Epic is a 3M Platinum Elite National Dealer and stands beside 3M on this. You will not find “F3561 compliant,” “F3561 certified” or “meets ASTM F3561” on any Epic spec card, proposal or bid response, and if you see it elsewhere, the question to ask is what, exactly, was tested.

What Epic tested, and what the result does and does not mean

A good objection does not win a bid, and a purchasing officer with F3561 in the RFP deserves data rather than the benefit of the doubt. So in August 2026 Epic had its installed system tested to the standard by Intertek Building & Construction in York, Pennsylvania, an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory.

Here is exactly how Epic reads that result, because the reading is the point. Level 2 is the tested result for those four assemblies, under that method, on that date. It is not a product rating for 3M S2400, not a rating for the Epic Method, not a claim that any assembly “meets,” “passes” or is “certified to” ASTM F3561, and not a comparison with any other film. Method A is, in the 2022 edition of the standard, the Appendix X1 glazing-only procedure — a non-system evaluation that, in the standard’s own words, yields a capability statement for the component and “not a system rating per this standard.” That is one more reason Level 2 is a tested result and nothing else. Only insulated glass was tested; results do not transfer to monolithic glass. The wood buck in the report was Intertek’s mounting fixture, not the framing evaluated. And nothing in it makes any window film bulletproof, bullet-resistant or forced-entry-proof — attached security film is designed to stop intruders by delaying entry, by keeping the broken glass in the frame so a hole is not made on the first blows.

What the result is good for: it lets a specifier who is required to ask about F3561 see what an attached-film assembly did under the standard’s own procedure, from an independent lab, with the exact film, attachment, glass and framing named. That is the Retrofit Gap in one page: the standard was built for a different product than the one it is being used to judge, and here is the data anyway.

What to do when a spec or RFP cites ASTM F3561

Most F3561 language in school and government documents was copied from a window-manufacturer specification, or from a template written for new construction, and landed in a project where the glass is staying. The fix is a sequence, not an argument.

1. Ask what is being bought. A new or replacement window and door system, or protection for existing glass? If the answer is a rated system, that is a fenestration manufacturer’s product — a complete window or door tested as a unit — and Epic will tell you so rather than bend film to fit the sentence. It usually belongs on a small number of openings, not the whole building; see how to match glass protection to the risk.
2. For existing glass, write the film section on the standards that evaluate film. UL 972 (burglary-resisting glazing material) for break-and-entry resistance; ANSI Z97.1 and CPSC 16 CFR 1201 for safety glazing; ASTM F1642 with GSA TS01-2003 for blast mitigation where it is in scope (3M applies its blast references to commercial and non-educational government facilities); ASTM E1886 / E1996 for windstorm debris impact; the film manufacturer’s four-sided attachment requirement; and a laboratory report on the installed assembly — film, attachment and framing — not on film alone. Epic’s free guide specification is written on these standards, with a specifier note that reads, in part: “Do not write this Section as ‘F3561 compliant.’”
3. Ask every bidder for the same thing. The lab, the report number, the exact film and attachment tested, the framing it was tested on, and how that matches the openings being quoted. A bidder who answers with a thickness and the word “rated” has not answered.
4. Ask for the attachment, by method. Film held to the glass alone can leave the frame in one piece. 3M requires its Impact Protection Attachment for forced-entry, windstorm and blast applications; how it is installed is the whole difference. Epic installs 3M IPA the Epic way — the patent-pending Epic Method.
5. Send Epic the section. Email the spec or RFP language to sales@epiccos.com or call 866.EPIC.117 (866.374.2117). An Epic Solutions Advisor returns the written response package: The Retrofit Gap (which carries the Intertek test summary), 3M’s published test data for the film specified, the Epic Method spec sheet, and district and agency references. Epic is SAM.gov registered, 100% woman-owned, and purchasable through TIPS and Equalis nationwide and BuyBoard in Texas, so the response can be a contract, not a bid cycle.

The bigger mistake F3561 causes: over-securing the building

The standard’s name has “active shooter” in it, and that pulls buyers toward the heaviest product on the shelf for every opening. Most facilities do not need a rated window system or bullet-resisting glazing on every window; they need the right protection on the few openings an intruder actually reaches first, and glass-retention film on the rest. Buying for the rarest threat everywhere spends the budget that should have covered the entry, and often leaves the vestibule — the opening that matters — with the same film as a second-floor classroom. The opposite mistake is just as common: film on the glass with no attachment to the frame, which is not a forced-entry product at all.

There is also a trade-off that rarely makes it into the RFP: getting out. Glazing built to stop bullets does not stop being a wall when the emergency changes. A tornado that takes part of a roof, a fire, a structural shift, or an intruder who is already inside the building can turn a window into the only way out — for the people in the room and for the first responders trying to reach them. A shelter-in-place plan still needs an exit. Security film is designed to resist entry from the outside; it does not seal people in. Epic educates its customers on this, and will walk a district’s safety team and first responders through it on their own glass. It is one reason the right answer for most campuses is attached film on the openings that matter, not a building full of glass nobody can get through.

Epic’s survey writes the scope opening by opening, and says plainly which openings need 3M S2400 attached with the Epic Method, which are served by Ultra S800 or S140, and which need something other than film. If solar control is also in the project, the Facility Energy Analysis ranks every 3M film by savings and payback for the building. How to protect glass for safety: match the product to the risk →

Sources

• ASTM International, F3561-22 Standard Test Method for Forced-Entry-Resistance of Fenestration Systems After Simulated Active Shooter Attack (approved August 1, 2022; Committee F12 / Subcommittee F12.10), F3561-23, and the current edition, F3561-25.
• International Window Film Association, ASTM F3561 – 22: An Explanation.
• 3M, 3M™ Safety & Security Window Films — ASTM F3561-22 Standard Technical Bulletin, September 2024.
• Intertek Building & Construction, report T8988.01-119-12, Revision 1, October 2, 2026, as summarized in Epic’s position statement POS-F3561, The Retrofit Gap (download above).