Quick Guide To Choosing The Right Custom Tent Fabric

For a heavy duty tent to be an ideal shelter solution, it needs to have the following attributes.

• Protection from the elements: Rain, shine or snow, your tent should be able to keep you dry and comfortable. The canopy fabric should be breathable enough to keep air circulation uninterrupted on hot days. And it should provide sufficient insulation on particularly cold days. Needless to say, your outdoor canopy tent needs to be waterproof as well!
• UV guard: We all know how dangerous UV rays can be. Your tent canopy fabric needs to be able to block these harmful radiations so that you are safe in its shade.
• Lightweight and easy to install: One of the key features of a portable shade solution has to be its weight. Your heavy duty tent needs to be light enough to be carried around easily. A major contributor to a tent’s weight is its canopy. If the canopy fabric is lightweight, your tent will be easy to carry. Besides, installing and taking down your tent should be easy as well. No one wants to pitch a tent that’s cumbersome and difficult to install. The same goes true for event tents as well.
• Flammability: This is one factor that is often overlooked by tent buyers. Make sure you choose a tent that is made from fire resistant materials. This adds to the safety the tent provides. Understand the flammability certification criteria for different materials in your country and make sure to check if your tent conforms to them.
• Cost-effective: A heavy duty canopy tent needs to be affordable enough for you to own one.  Because hiring a tent isn’t always a good idea!

Let’s take a look at different canopy materials so that you can choose the one that’s perfect for you.

We’ll begin with the most popular materials used by custom printed pop up tent manufacturers like Extreme Canopy. 

Polyester

Polyester is a synthetic fiber obtained from petroleum. It is extremely popular in the textile and tent manufacturing industries.

Pros

• Durable
• Lightweight. Easy to fold and carry.
• Abrasion resistance
• Cost-effective
• Blocks bulk of the ambient UV radiations.
• Waterproof. Can be made better with additional coats of waterproofing solutions.
• Heavily customisable. You can ask your tent manufacturer to print anything on your polyester tent canopy, or have it in preferred designs and colors. This is particularly beneficial for business owners. They can have their tents customized for their brands.

Cons

• Tends to accumulate mildew if the material isn’t cleaned thoroughly and regularly. This can make things smelly after long periods of use.
• Polyester isn’t as breathable or as insulating as natural fabrics like cotton or canvas. But frankly speaking, its advantages over natural fabrics outweigh its downsides.
• It is prone to bobbling or pilling.

2. Nylon

The word nylon essentially represents an entire family of synthetic materials known as polyamides. Like in the case of polyester, petroleum is the chief ingredient for making nylon. And like polyester, nylon fabrics are also used for making tent fabrics and lifestyle products.

Pros

• Extremely lightweight and easy to carry.
• Very cost-effective
• Reasonably durable
• Doesn’t deform or shrink.
• Can be customized easily. Like polyester, this material is good for making tailored products for brand owners.

Cons

• Prone to mildew accumulation and bobbling
• Not as abrasion resistant as polyester
• Not as waterproof as polyester
• Certainly not as good in blocking UV as polyester.

3. PVC

This is another synthetic material obtained primarily from the reaction between chlorine, carbon and ethylene. Like polyester, PVC is an extremely popular product used to manufacture a wide range of accessories and utility products.

Pros

      Wide range of applications. PVC can be molded into solid shapes to form things like automobile cowls and gadget frames, as well as extremely flexible sheets for tent canopies. Blow up tents and event tents, for instance, are made almost exclusively from PVC.

Additives can be added during the manufacturing process to make it fire-resistant.

• Extremely durable
• Cost-effective
• Heavily customisable. You can have your PVC event tent in your chosen colors and even have it branded with your company’s logo. You can also go for a host of PVC-based accessories like tent walls, floors and roofs. Promotional materials like outdoor banners and flags are also made primarily from PVC due to the material’s durability and customisable nature.
• Blocks UV easily.
• Very good insulator.
• Doesn’t attract mildew.
• Can be cleaned easily.
• With PVC there is no question of bobbling or pilling.

Cons

• PVC is not as breathable as polyester.
• Polyester tends to be lighter than PVC and hence slightly easier to fold and carry.

A word on Polyurethane (PU) coating:

Quality heavy duty tents manufacturers like Extreme Canopy tend to coat their tent canopies with PU. PU is essentially a kind of plastic that can be tailored to be flexible or rigid, or even applied as coats. What a PU coat on a tent canopy does is:

•  It keeps the canopy surface smooth and reflective to enable better water drainage and heat reflection. PU is 100% waterproof and doesn’t allow fungal growth.
• It helps retain the canopy’s color longer, even when exposed to harsh weather conditions.
• PU is non-flammable. So you can be extra-safe in a PU coated tent canopy.

The list of benefits of a PU-coated tent canopy is pretty exhaustive really!

4. Other materials for manufacturing tent canopies

• Traditional canvas made from cotton or linen. A variation of the standard canvas is Oxford Cloth.
•  Polycotton – a blend of cotton and polyester.
• Cuben Fiber or Dyneema Composite Fabric is a non-woven composite material that is quickly gaining popularity as a high-performance, lightweight material.
• Rayon

Conclusion

Your tent is not just a shelter solution. Think of it as your personalized statement for the world. Quality tent manufacturers like Extreme Canopy offer a host of bespoke services to their customers, so that they can have their tents tailored to their tastes. Make use of these services and get yourself a tent that lets you shine in all sorts of outdoor events!