Welded Seam v Glued Seam for Inflatable Boats - Workshop Test to Failure
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
- Ever wondered what all the fuss is about when it comes to how your seams are put together on an inflatable boat? Seams are the most important bonded part of an inflatable boat - watch this video, it might save your life one day and help you decide what's important on your next boat. We workshop test a welded seam v a glued seam until failure. It's a long unedited video filmed in real time, watch to find out what happens when you take your boat out in the sun! If you want to skip through to the failure point go to 4:18 on the video.
- กีฬา
hi there. I was about yo reglue my whole boat because It started to leak air at the joints. The boat is about8 yeats old. I just learned how to weld the pvc but I wasn't surebif I would weld or glue, bit after your video it is vlear to me. Thank you very much gor your time nsking this video..
wow thank you. was about to get a cheap saturn boat. not anymore...
most of Saturn boats now heat welded
I have inflatable from reputable company. This boat was used once and then put in storage@20c slightly inflated. So under ideal conditions. I took it out this summer after x number of years. All glued parts under pressure and sun stared fall off after first day. My concern regarding truekit is that it is made in China, I don't see advantage ordering boat from them over Aliexpress for half price. I live in US so waranty will not be usable in both cases. Their competition has reps in US and I could atleast see and try before buying. But yes I belive welding is supperior to glue.
It's no surprise that your dinghy fell apart. This will happen to most glued inflatables especially using the cheap fabrics that they use. The plasticisers leach out of the cheap fabrics (that's when the fabric starts feeling sticky) and attacks the glues, that's when it all starts falling apart. Our boats use German made Valmex (not Chinese fabrics). Our designs are our own. We stand by our boats. Good luck with your Aliexpress boat
Do you recommend a welded or glued patch when one has a leak in the future?
You can do a weld repair but you will need a hand-held thermo-welder. If you don't have one of these, like most people, glueing will be your option
Thanks for this video. I've basically narrowed down my search to a toss up between a True Kit and a Takacat. The main difference that concerns me is your welded seams vs their glued seams. Though, they do present an argument for glued seams, it rests on the central premise that, "we've been doing this for a while so we know what we're talking about."
I appreciate this video for going into the engineering behind your decision, and a stress test of the seams.
Being new to inflatable boats, I was wondering if you can share (or link to videos you have made) that go into some of the other considerations I should make before reaching a decision? Material seems to be high on the list.
Thanks again!
Oh, there's so much more! Have a look at our blog post "Its all in the details" on our website
@@TRUEKITINFLATABLES thanks, that was a great read. You even managed to answer questions about marine grade stainless steel that I forgot that I was wondering about.
Many inflatables are quadruple-reinforced, not single.
I’ll be replacing my Takacat with a Truekit
Great to hear Kieran. Send the team a message at info@truekit.net and they will help answer any of your questions to get your sorted. Cheers
Nice sales pitch but the temperature you placed these under is Never reached in the real world. So this was totally irrelevant.
what haha? i dont think you understand what you just watched
@@V8ToYy that will be it. ;-p
But a glued seam isn’t going to come apart like that from a day in hot sun. Or days and days in hot sun. Eventually, that COULD happen.
But it’s not going to happen with a heat gun like your test either, pieces that you guys glued.
Mind you, I’m not totally sold off the superiority of welded seams, albeit harder to repair than glued if needed, but I don’t think this experiment is an accurate representation.
Hi Ira, thanks for your comment. I respect your opinion. The point of this video is to provide an indication of how heat+pressure affects the glued seams of an inflatable boat - not to provide a normal timeline (that would be a longer video no one would want to watch). The point of the video is to be informative. If you don't think a boat seam can come apart like this on a hot day in the sun, there are thousands of people out there that would point out that have experienced seam failure. Also, feel free to do this test yourself and you will get the same result. Thanks for watching.
@@TRUEKITINFLATABLES I Have lived in Florida in the U.S. for 35+ years and been on the water most all those years. I have had many boats, most fiberglass, but also a few inflatables, "Avon" and "Zodiac" with glued seams. I don't doubt welded seems are better either, but I have not, nor have I ever known anyone else, to have a catastrophic failure of a glued seem like you just demonstrated. Heat guns create such a high temperature I think the boat owners skin would burn off their whole body before their seams would fail. Those things melt 30 year old paint off of wood and such. You cannot compare a heat gun with several hundred degree temps to the sun a boat would endure. Truly a dishonest test. You could make the point welded seams are better than glued without being that dramatic and dishonest.