Dark does not mean good

There are various reasons why the public wants darker tints; while there is little doubt that darker windows enhance privacy, it is also flies very much in the face of the law. Nothing much one can do about that. There’s also the perception that darker windows make for a cooler interior because it blocks out the sun. This is not true.

Without going into a science lecture, light is actually made out of different wavelengths, some that brings out colours in the world and some that cannot be picked up by the human eye. Now, all light carries heat but none more than the infrared, the light wave ultimately responsible for making your car’s interior go supernova. Cut the infrared penetration and you’ll open your doors to a cooler car interior despite the sun beating down on poor earth. That said, darker tints do not cut out infrared but only block out light. Which means, you need a window film that blocks out the infrared.

The solution? Well, 3M says that they have a wide range of films that are legal to current standards while still having the capability to reject plenty heat. One such film is the 3M Crystalline AutoFilm that features the Multi-layer Optical Film technology which combines over 200 hyper-thin layers to create a film no thicker than a Post-it Note. This allows the tint to reject more heat without fighting the law, because in the end, the law will always win.

To test it, 3M invited the media to their headquarters to try out their range of Crystalline AutoFilm. As expected, 3M films perform as advertised. But it needs to be said that only the Crystalline AutoFilm were tested and not 3M’s entire range of window tints were available on hand. Still, don’t let that distract you from the fact that there exist window tints that can keep the heat out while keeping to the good side of the law. You just have to look for it.