Other Cubic Tech products besides CTF3

Ryan,

I don't have any experience with cuben fiber products that employ reinforcements other than carbon and UHMWPE, or films other than PET and PVF, but I have chatted about other possibilities with Chris at Cubic Tech. They do a lot of experimenting, I think, and I was told that they had layed up laminates containing other reinforcements like Kevlar 49. I don't doubt that they could produce almost anything that you could imagine, but they would probably require that you buy a very large amount of it.

Vectran would be a sacrifice in strength as a replacement for Dyneema, and Certran and Pentex would be weaker still. Out of curiosity, what about these other fibers interests you? Is it just that these reinforcements would bring down the price of cuben fiber? What applications do you have in mind?

Colin,

Just curiosity & thinking out loud so to speak. I was cruising Cubic's website and saw some of the other products that they used and it got me to thinking about using laminates with a different reinforcement besides spectra. Some of cuben's current uses do not need max strength(bivy, ground cloth, poncho for example), and Vectran is still very strong, light and abrasion resistant. For a tarp you would definitely want stick with CTF3 since it's only real disadvantage comparatively speaking is cost.

Theoretically, Vectran might be at a lower price point all other things being equal though.

Ryan