Ok I had some time to run some tests of my own and this is what I found.( I'll apoligize now for the big pictures, but it's hard to see with the pictures being any smaller.)
I went out today and bought some brand new Radian shooting glasses from the nice people down and 911 Supply. They are rated to meet ANSI Z87.1 requirements and are $10. I thought I'd test on a pair of inexpensive glasses so that it's not like I tested on some $100+ glasses that may not be affordable to all players. That and I didn't feel like throwing $100 in the garbage today.
For the test, I supported the glasses on a rolled up piece of high density foam stood vertically so that it resembled a head and wedged it into an alocove in my basement. Nice and sturdy.
I used 2 AEG's for the test. the first gun shot 495fps with .2 g bb's and the second shot 295fps with .2 g bb's. Ill refer to these guns as the high velocity gun and the low velocity gun respectively.
For the first test I shot the glasses with a single BB Bastartd Silica BB, 5cm from the muzzle of the high velocity AEG to the front of the glasses.
The Silica BB left a noticable dent that you can feel on the backside of the glasses and some tiny radial stress fractures that could be seen when you held it up to the light.
Next I shot it with a BB Bastard .28g Styrene BB, again 5cm between the high velocity AEG muzzle and the glasses.
The Styrene bb left a slight dent which you can feel on the backside of the glasses and the same radial stress fractures that were visible when held up to the light.
The comparison between the 2 impacts yielded that the Silica BB left a much more noticible dent, but they both left the same size of stress fractures. Again these stress fractures are invisible unless you hold the glasses up to a really bright light, in my case a halogen light. Makes me want to check out my other eyewear to see if the myriad of strikes that they have experienced, have cause any 'invisible' damage.
Next up, I shot the glasses an additional 9 times with Silica and Styrene to each of their respective sides as close to the initial impact area as I could.
This is the result of 10 Silica BB's shot by the high velocity AEG at a distance of 5cm.
Left a pretty cool 8mm across bulbous dent in the glasses with some tiny radial stress fractures on the periphery. The dent can be felt from the inside of the glasses, and although it's pretty hard to judge how deep , I'd say maybe .5-1mm deep. Sorry that it's not really in focus.
This is the result of 10 Styrene BB's shot by the high velocity AEG at a distance of 5cm.
Again, the denting was not as significant, but the stress fractures were much more prominent. This may be because the dents masked some of the stress fractures from the Silica strikes.
Next up, I took a stock 295fps gun, low velocity gun, and did the same 10 shot test at point blank range.
This is the result of 10 Silica BB's shot by the low velocity gun from a distance of 5cm. (the group on the left) These are almost un-noticable to the naked eye except for a few scratches and you cannot feel any dents at all with your finger. Looks worse in the picture.
The impacts to the right are the result of 10 Styrene BB's from the low velocity gun at a distance of 5cm. These are as well almost un noticable to the naked eye, even less scratching that the silicas. You cannot feel any dents with your finger.
Same ammo again, zoomed in a bit more. Again, it's very hard to see these stress fractures unless you have a good light source. They are pretty much invisible in normal light.
In both cases of BB type, I was pretty suprized to see similar stress fractures to the glasses from hits from both the high and low velocity guns. Although there were stress fractures and visible denting in both cases, multiple hits ( especially in the case of the 10 Silicas that were grouped much closer than the styrene ), did not seem to degrade the effectiveness of the eyewear even at the outside of playable FPS and in almost the exact spot after 10 shots at point blank range.
I also did some shatter testing on the bb's as well. I recovered all of the bb's that I shot at the glasses and out of 20 Silica BB's, none broke after striking the eyewear. Out of 20 Styrene BB's, 5 of them shattered after striking the eyewear when using the high velocity gun. I then took a towel to encircle the end of my gun and shot 20 Silica BB's at point blank into my cement floor in my basement. I recovered all of the BB's and not one shattered. I didn't shoot any Styrene at the floor as they broke on the glasses and most assuredly would break on the floor.
Aftermath of testing BB's.
I was suprised that the Silica bb's showed minimal scarring from being shot into the concrete.
My final thoughts are that these are ridiculously robust bb's. I can see these causing issues with nozzels if your gun chops the occasional BB. These will never get chopped, so the energy will be absorbed by your mechbox parts not this BB. I see the real win with these being with bolt action and DMR shooters. Roles where shooting is more deliberate and requires consistancy. Obviously, this testing takes only one manufacturer's eyewear into account, but from this round of testing I feel confident about using these on the field strictly from an eyewear safety issue. If they dont shatter or puncture approved eyewear after 10 shots from an almost 500fps gun at point blank range, they get my vote as being safe.
As far as people being concerned that they will shoot everyone's teeth out, well, as a person that has had one tooth shot out and another cracked and the bb shattered and embedded in his lips I say that's nothing new. I have the option of wearing mouth protection, but I usually choose not to knowing full well that it may cost me another $1000. People have had their teeth shot out by stock guns... govern yourselves accordingly.