Denier vs fabric weight?

[Justin Baker]

I know these are completely different ways of measuring a fabric. But is there any way to compare the two when considering durability? For example, what would a 3.0 oz / yard fabric be comparable to in denier?

[Roger Caffin]

In theory you cannot go from one to the other.
Fabric weight is obvious.
Denier was originally the fineness of a single fibre in the thread. A thread might have 10 fibres, or it might have 100. It was officially defined as
'A unit of fineness for rayon, nylon, and silk fibers, based on a standard mass per length of 1 gram per 9,000 meters of yarn'.

However, it seems that the fabric mfrs have more recently been using denier for the thread thickness. When they quote something like a 70 denier fabric or a 20 denier fabric, they mighty be telling you about the fineness of the fibres in the thread, OR they might be telling you about the thickness of the thread. The latter usage has crept in, especially in the UL fabrics.

So – the lower the denier number, the finer the fabric – and hence the weaker the fabric. But to go from that to fabric weight … difficult. From memory, I think the old 1.3 oz silnylon used something like 30 denier threads – but I might be wrong. Certainly, 3.0 oz fabric is much heavier than silnylon. 120 denier or more maybe.

HTH
Cheers

[Woubeir (from Europe)]

I think I saw somewhere that 70 denier PU-coated nylon weights ± 2,8 oz.

[Tim Marshall]

thread density also comes to play. A very loose weave of 30D fibers may be lighter than a dense weave of 10D ones. Not just the thickness of the fibers but how many of those fibers are used in the weave leads to the final weight, and quality of the fabric.

-Tim

[Paul McLaughlin]

You can use it as a very rough guide to the extent that you are talking about similar fabrics (i.e. ripstop compared to ripstop) but it's still pretty rough. 1.9 oz. uncoated ripstop is typically 70d.
Just to give you an idea how confusing it can be, 160d and 330d cordura weigh pretty close to the same, in the 4-5 oz range. The difference in yarn size is obvious when you look at the two fabrics. 500d cordura is around 8 oz coated, while 100od cordura is around 11 oz.
And then you have other characteristics that affect durability beyond denier and weight. Yarn types make a difference as does weave.
It's probably better to just go by reputation and experience – like we know cordura is very durable stuff, as is supplex and taslan; taffeta of a given weight is more durable than ripstop the same weight; and so on.

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