ADVISOR

First some words about the materials for inflatable boats in general. To reach the maximum of air tightness the main material for high-quality inflatable boats usually has 5-layers design:

• One central internal layer: it’s a reinforcement cord – cloth base, made of strong synthetic fabric,
• Two internal layers: coating of cloth base with airtight flexible material, which makes the fabric airtight and has high adhesion level to the cloth base.
• Two external layers: coating with airtight flexible material, which opposes the abrasion and increases UV
resistance and air tightness.

The most popular material for reinforcement cord is POLYESTER cloth base with the density parameter 1100 DTEX for recreational boats and 1680 DTEX for professional ones. Coating materials can be different and it’s the main subject of your choice. At the moment there is a lot of different names and trademarks of the materials for inflatable boats, but all of them can be combined into TWO main groups: ELASTOMERS and PLASTOMERS.

Elastomers are the thermo-reactive materials, which never become plastic when heating after they have been produced – mainly they are all sorts of rubber. There are two materials, which are undoubtedly leading elastomers materials for inflatables in the world: HYPALON and NEOPREN.

HYPALON has an excellent chemical resistance and stability against UV-rays, but it is still the most expensive option. NEOPREN does not have such outstanding stability as HYPALON, but its stability is high enough. This in combination with attractive prices for raw material, makes its use guaranteed. Mainly these materials are used in combination: NEOPREN – inside the boat and the tube, HYPALON – outside. Such a combination is the most popular for recreational boats. Only HYPALON-coated fabrics (on both sides) are used for military or some commercial purposes, where the price is not so important as other characteristics.

One of the most important characteristics of the both materials is their high maximum working temperature up to 140 degrees C. Plastomers are the thermoplastic materials (they can become liquid when heating). The main specimens are PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and PU (polyurethane). PU has unbelievable abrasion resistance – an excellent material, but too expensive to be a leader. The leader is PVC. You can meet a number of different names of thermoplastic materials, but all of them are PVC with slightly different compositions. And the price is SUPER! Thus, when speaking about the materials for inflatables, the choices are ultimately either HYPALON or PVC.

PVC vs Hypalon

The number of parameters between these materials are very similar: modern technology and improvements of PVC are minimizing the difference step by step. From the practical side, the most important differences are :

– TEMPERATURE RESISTANCE. It makes HYPALON very preferable in hot climate areas (equator, sub-equator, tropics and some sub-tropics), where the boat surface temperature can easily reach the level of 80-90 degrees C. PVC is also very useful there, but you have to be more careful with your boat. In medium and cold climate areas this difference disappears.

– LIFETIME. PVC is more sensitive to UV radiation than HYPALON. But now the special chemical additives in PVC have nearly solved the problem – 10 years lifetime for PVC boats is more than realistic.

– PRICE. HYPALON materials now are 5-6 (!!!) times more expensive than PVC. As a result, in comparison with a PVC boat a HYPALON one costs nearly DOUBLE (!!!) price for foldable boats and 40-60% more for boats with a rigid hull. The difference is significant.

ASSUME: Choose HYPALON if you are going to be using the boat in HOT climates or if you are looking for the high end product and are not deterred by the price. In all the other situations PVC will serve you brilliantly!