Utilization of Vinyl Coated Polyester Fabrics for Architectural Applications

For thousands of years, waterproof fabrics have been utilized for many different types of protective applications. Other than protective outerwear, most of these applications have been referred to as industrial uses of fabrics.

Although strong waterproof fabrics have been used for centuries, it has only been in the last 50 years that research and development efforts have resulted in significant achievements in fabric design and coatings. The fabrics resulting from these achievements have superior performance characteristics and have increased the utilization of fabrics in many new types of industrial applications.

This overview of the industry will walk you through the history of high-performance fabrics for architectural structures, and serves as a primer to applications of the product, as well as performance properties.

We begin with actual field applications that utilize vinyl coated polyester fabrics for architectural fabric structures and identify and define the performance properties of fabrics for these types of applications. Next, we explore how these performance properties are achieved by yarn selection, weave design and coating application. Finally, proper performance measurements that should be utilized for specifying quality fabric building materials will be identified.

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