Welding / Gluing

The manufacturers of plastic welding equipment and glues are usually very helpful about tech stuff, in my experience. You are going to run into issues such as incompatible coatings and treatments that must be removed before effective welding/glueing. For example, silicone doesn't weld, but will prevent silnylon from being welded. On the other hand, silnylon can be glued. But the glue line is only as strong as the silicone bond to the nylon and/or as the silicone itself.

There are many advantages to gluing, and the adhesives that are available can glue everything from your fingers to commercial / military aircraft fuselages and many things in between.

You might also consider talking with the fabric and material manufacturers, as they should be able to provide you properties about the materials that may not be obvious. In particular, compatibility information on how well a particular material performs long term and in various environments vs. the adhesive or welding technique.

Good luck,
MikeB

I think you will find that welding/gluing will turn out to be more complicated and expensive than sewing. The idea is certainly not new. Look at the welded seems on the rain coats in camping section of a superstore. As noted above coatings adn strength are very important. I would call the home ec teacher at your old high school or talk the ladies at your local sewing store and you may find that the required talent may easlily be augmented with sewing machine technology.

So the complexities that were mentioned lead me to another question that I've been pondering: why aren't nonwoven materials used more often? In an application like a backpack where breathability isn't much of a concern, it seems like a nonwoven would offer simpler construction as well as automatic waterproofing (assuming bonding instead of sewing).

Or is the simple answer that wovens are typically more durable than the same material in a nonwoven? All I know about that question is that mylar space blankets shred easily, but then, those space blankets are extremely light. On the other hand, the AMK Heatsheets appear to be pretty durable, particularly for their extremely low weight, and as far as I know those are nonwoven. So are FlexAir pillows, and the ones I own have survived several trips without incident.

What I've been researching, very cursorily, is that ultralight nonwoven materials are a LOT cheaper than something like spinnaker or plain lightweight ripstop. One of the prime aims of my company is to try to make ultralight methods accessible to any income bracket, so if I could make nonwovens work for things like packs, and maybe tarps(?), that would be a huge step in the right direction.

Who has some knowledge?