PU or Hyperlon Tubes which to go for?

[paul tilley]

Hypalon is considered to be the best fabric for tubes due to its good all round properties ,it can give a very long life ,the oldest tube i have seen was 26yrs old and used regularly before needing retubing ihave never seen a PU or PVC tube last any where near that long , some pvc and pu tubes have been known to last less than 18 months .PVC and PU are both harder to glue than hypalon thus making them less user friendly when you need to do that little get you home repair .IT is also afact that in the uk especially most RIB builders are only relatively small and it would not be cost effective to buy the sort of equipment Tornado have to make their very nice looking welded PU tubes as most glued PU tubes seem to fall apart when the glue seems to crystalize . In my humble opinion the only thing PU has going for it is its better abrasion resistance but this is outweighed by the user friendlyness of hypalon . The UK MOD tried PU tubes but seem to be sticking to hypalon.

[Manos]

Paul I just thought that PVC was easier to use than Hypalon. Does not need the same amount of preparation and glues very quickly. Learn something every day here

[jwalker]

Originally posted by paul tilley
seem to be sticking to hypalon.

Ho, ho.

[roywebster]

The rib that I am have on order (Ribeye 6m playtime) has tubes made from Hypatex. I understand from Ribeye that Hypatex is PVC based has anybody any experience of this material.


Roy

[Manos]

I was told by someone who uses PVC instead of Hypalon on RIBs that if they used hypalon instead of PVC the price of the RIB would have increased by 45%.
Is this correct?

[Pitkis]

Well, price of the basic boat without equipment and engine might go up quite well if Hypalon is used instead of PVC. Still, you have to note that during RIB lifetime of, say, 20 years, PVC tubes have to be replaced several times, but original Hypalon tubes can work the whole lifespan without problems.

[Manos]

Just found those comments about Hypalon and PVC and thought that you may be interested to know:

PVC Advantages
Lower manufacturing cost i.e. lower product cost
Easier to repair & glue
Wider variety of colours
Can be double-skined with Rhino Hide to withstand vigorous scuffing and abrasion ..... especially useful in full commercial boats.
Lighter i.e. race boats (less weight = more speed)


HYPALON Advantages
Immensly strong
Wear resistant
Waterproof and air tight
Immune to hazards of sunlight, ozone fuel, oil, acids and contaminants.
A boat with Hypalon Tubes has a better resale value.

[ribraff]

....sorry Manos, i disagree on the PVC being easier to repair.

[Manos]

I was shown how PVC is repaired when I was in South Africa and have to say that I am completely useless with all that but even I can do it. And if I can do it must be easy.

Clean both surfaces with acetone or similar product, mix the glue with hardener, apply thin layer on both surfaces, let it dry completely, warm it up very little with a hair dryer and glue it. If you made a mistake and before is completely set you can pull it apart and re stick it. I think is very simple my self. When is dried about 4 hours is ready to be used and since hardener has been mixed in the glue it will NEVER split.

But as I said I’m not an expert so I may be wrong

[swginn]

Since this thread is about PU (polyurethane) vs Hypalon, I just thought i'd point out that Polyurethane is not PVC.

The only similarity is that both fabrics can be heat welded. PVC is an unstable polymer because of the chemical make up of the fabrics coating. This means that the PVC fabric is constantly changing, oxidizing and migrating to the surface. PVC's are liquefied with solvents where polyurethane is liquefied by heat, leading to a significantly more stable fabric coating. Stories about tubes rotting in the sun are about PVC - not polyurethane.

I think you'll find that a read of the following web page should shed some light on the issue:

http://www.wing.com/polyurethane.html

Note the US Navy test at the end of the page which recommends that hypalon ribs should be replaced with polyurethane tubes. I don't think this caught on with the US Navy, probably preferring to stick with old fashioned glue instead of welded seams.