Telkwa Floor To Sides Seal

[snack pack]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>So I have been struggling to get good seals on my floor to side seals and I’m not sure why.</p>
When I join the side fabric to other pieces of side fabric I get those “hard as hell to pull apart” seals but the floor to side fabric doesn’t come close to the same strength of resistance.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I have tried holding the iron on for a long time, (have even melted some side fabric to the iron) and also melted some floor TPU on the bottom of the material being bonded, but can’t seem to get a good seal even with the full melt. I also had several that weren’t taken to that extreme which also didn’t hold up.</p>
 

I let the pieces cool for about 15 minutes before testing them, but to no avail. I am beginning to wonder what might be wrong.

Any help or tips are appreciated. 

Topic

[Matt (Admin)]

I’m not sure if you saw the second “Note” on the heat sealing page, but what you’re describing could be normal. All of the seams in the packrafts are designed to avoid that kind of peeling force – they’re either shear forces only, as in the areas where the tubes attach to the perimeter of the floor, or the area that would feel a peeling force is backed with a reinforcing strip on the inside of the weld so it would have to peel in two opposite directions at the same time (as where the tubes attach to the floor at the cockpit’s perimeter.

It’s possible you received a defective piece of fabric, so if in doubt, test the strength of those types of welds, but it is normal for the TPU-fabric bond to be weaker in the floor fabric compared to the tube fabric.

[Author]

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