RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF AIRSHIP ENVELOPE FABRIC
Abstract
Airship envelope fabric of hot-stretched, heatstabilized Dacron fabrics has a decided advantage of low elongation. This advantage is attained at the expense of a less uniform quality and greater processing difficulties. An additional processing step of heat-setting the unstable hot-stretch, heat-stabilized Dacron cloth on a tenter frame resulted in a more uniform product and tended to balance out the wide differences in properties of the cloth from different suppliers; this was attained at the expense of an increase in elongation. Limiting the finishing operation of the cloth to heat-setting resulted in the most desirable stress-strain curves. The second beast method of finishing was heat-setting followed by scouring. Neoprene, from a theoretical consideration based on the permeability constants for He, was the poorest choice of any elastomer considered. Butyl and Hypalon possessed lower permeability constants for He; however, these elastomers require a pressure cure for consistently good results. Hypalon is preferred to butyl for the gas barrier film. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0270559
Entities
People
- R.e. Light