Re: [pct-l] Tent color

[Brick Robbins <brick@fastpack.com>]

>Question:  Will dark colored tents be damaged more by the sun's UV rays?  Or
>will they both equally, since they'd both be exposed equally?  Anyone out
>there know?

The Parachute Industry Association paid this one a lot of attention about
10 years ago since parachute fabric is much thinner than tent fabric, and
failure is a bit more catastrophic.

I seem to recall that the chemical used in the dye was more important than
the lightness or darkness of the resulting color. The stuff used to make
fabric red at that time had the most sun damaging effect.

There were also problems with the acidic fire retardent applied to tent
fabric getting mistakenly applied to parachute fabric. With a little
moisture added, it make the fabric tear like tissue paper....

Blue Skies - Black Death

-Brick

PS. the above is a traditional skydiver saying<g>
* From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List |  http://www.backcountry.net   *

==============================================================================