Each year in the United States, hail causes billions of dollars in property damage, including damage to roofs. Thus, there is considerable interest in the insurance and research communities in providing more hail resistant roofing products. As expected, not all roofing products have the same degree of hail impact resistance.

Mechanical launchers have been developed by Haag to propel freezer ice balls (and cubes) at desired velocities toward various roofing products and other objects to test their resistance. Roofing products tested have included the following: 

• Asphalt shingles
• Wood shingles and shakes
• Concrete and clay tiles
• Fiber-cement tiles
• Slate
• Synthetic tiles
• Built-up
• Polymer modified bitumen
• Plastic single-ply
• Spray polyurethane foam
• Metal roofing 

Download this technical paper to learn more about the history of ice ball launchers and explore the impact test results on various roofing materials. Our impact test results have compared well to other studies on the subject as well as actual field evaluations of hail damaged roofing.