Icarex Polyester vs Icarex Polycarbonate
Andy/Lorraine Goris
of
Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before.
Are current kites made of the former, or latter?
And does it matter?
-Andy Goris
go...@oneimage.com
Steve Bateman
>
> In looking at kite fabrics on the web, I came across two different types
> of
> Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
>
> and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
> Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
> never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before.
The Icarex polyester, which included p31 (1/2oz) and p38 (3/4 oz), was
the first run of Icarex fabric. p31 was incredibly light and strong.
Plenty strong for most kite uses. p38 was also a great fabric. I
stocked up on it when I found out that it wasn't being made anymore.
Both p31 and p38 are considered stiff; they form creases very easily,
due to a small amount of coating coming off where it is folded.
Although having the coating come off can be considered a bad thing,
the added stiffness these creases caused made both fabrics better suited
for foil type kites. In a lull, the kite will hold it's shape better.
The coating on p31 tended to come off easier than p38, and that
is why I prefer p38.
Some colors of p31 had a problem with bleeding when wet. I personally
know of red and black. I don't know if this was corrected with the
PC Icarex.
p31 and p38 used to sell for about $7/yard. You can now get
p38 at some places for $5.35/yard
The Icarex Polycarbonate fabric is also a polyester. I don't
know where the 'polycarbnate' name comes from. The fabric has the
strength of p38, with a weight a little above p31. It feels
different than the old Icarex, more nylon like. Not as good
for foils, but not bad. I feel it is perfect for framed
kites.
The PC Icarex sells for about $9/yard. Very expensive.
All kinds of Icarex have brilliant colors, do not absorb
water, are more resistent to UV light than nylon, and are
more air tight than nylon.
> Are current kites made of the former, or latter?
Most top end kites are/were made from all kinds of
Icarex.
> And does it matter?
It sure makes the kite prettier.
--
Steve Bateman geokite at sprintmail dot com
7.0m 1st gen. Chevron buggy kite, Icarex+spectra, $250+shipping
Check out the San Diego Kite Club at http://www.ratzilla.com/sdkc/
And for you automated email spammers out there,
here's the email addresses of the current board of
the Federal Communications Commission:
Chairman Reed Hundt: rhu...@fcc.gov
Commissioner James Quello: jqu...@fcc.gov
Commissioner Susan Ness: sn...@fcc.gov
Steve Holdoway and Julie Holdstock
<go...@oneimage.com> wrote:
>In looking at kite fabrics on the web, I came across two different types
>of
>Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
>
>and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
>Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
>never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before.
>
>Are current kites made of the former, or latter?
>And does it matter?
>
>-Andy Goris
> go...@oneimage.com
>
>
From what I understand, the newfangled polycarbonate doesn't mark like
the old polyester does - especially the lighter colours seemed to come
out with white flecks all over them just from packing the kites away.
Steve
Nathan Sendan
>
> In looking at kite fabrics on the web, I came across two different types
> of
> Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
>
> and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
> Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
> never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before.
>
> Are current kites made of the former, or latter?
> And does it matter?
It depends what the fabric is for. The old Icarex (p31/p38) was
crisper, the p31 lighter. It was very crinkly fabric, roll up your
sportkite, put it in the bag, take it out a week or two later, it looked
all rumpled and crackly. put the kite in the air and it was fine, but
up close it tended to look old pretty quickly. A lot of people liked the
old Icarex for soft power kites. It inflates easily, holds its shape,
etc.
The New icarex (polycarbonate - pc31) is a softer fabric. Still very low
stretch (claims to be lower stretch than the old icarex) but a better
coating. The new coating doesn't crack, its more supple, sportkites for
better shapes, smoother wing surfaces. it stays looking new almost
forever.
the colors don't seem to run. I have an old icarex p38 kite. Its still
one of my favorites (the 1st KamiKaze ;-) and the red bled onto the
white after i put it away damp one time.
the new icarex also has a square grid, about 1/2" on a side. This makes
it _much_ easier to lay out your paterns. the old icarex (p31) had a
rectangular grid, making it hard to use the fabric efficiently.
imobest thing about the new icarex is the way it sparkles with the sun
behind it. It's so gorgeous on a multi-paneled kite. Make's you smile,
or cry, depending on how sappy you are. very very pretty.
In conclusion, I use the polycarbonate Icarex for my sportkites and big
showy framed single lines. I like the fabric. A lot. its easier to
work with than the old stuff.
For my baskets, bols, flowforms, small diamond kites, it use nylon,
usually North cloth, but thats a different story and may be changing
soon.
Nathan Sendan
Laughing Gecko Kite Co. [Summer Sale!]
website @ http://home1.gte.net/sendan/lg.html
reply to: lge...@gte.net - 1-925-686-9108
John Biggs
american kite (fabric by mark olson, summer 1998 issue page 25)
I gather the following.
The polycaronate is a resin finish applied to the fabric before
heat setting. Previous finishes were of urathane or acrylic.
All perform the same function; sealing the fabric to effect the
porosity and add the "ripstop" characteristic
(how much air passes through the fabric).
The various finishes add weight and cost.
From Shanti's ad on page 47 of the same mag, one would surmize that
Icarex Polycarbonate is viewed as quite superior to Icarex Polyester.
Since the polycarbonate fabrics are "being test marketed by the best
kitemakers in the world." I presume most current kites are of the
polyester, and in the future they will be made of the polycarbonate.
but what do I know.... ask shanti (503) 273 2217
Andy/Lorraine Goris wrote:
>
> In looking at kite fabrics on the web, I came across two different types
> of
> Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
>
> and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
> Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
> never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before.
>
> Are current kites made of the former, or latter?
> And does it matter?
>
> -Andy Goris
> go...@oneimage.com
Baz Thrower
and Julie Holdstock) wrote:
>On Sat, 11 Jul 1998 22:34:48 -0600, Andy/Lorraine Goris
><go...@oneimage.com> wrote:
>
>>In looking at kite fabrics on the web, I came across two different types
>>of
>>Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
>>
>>and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
>>Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
>>never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before
Does anyone know where Dragon cloth sits in this discussion on
materials
Chris Brent
>
[snip]
>
> Does anyone know where Dragon cloth sits in this discussion on
> materials
Its of much lower quality than Icarex. Its a 3/4 once fabric that's
crisp. It's distributed in Austraila by Bambridge who sell sail cloth.
The fabric is in fact seconds which they rename Dragon. They recently
(last year some time) changed the seconds that they use (if you see what
i mean) and now have a much more consistent cloth. Previously the
fabric actually weighed anywhere from 3/4 to over 1 ounce. If used it
quite a bit for single liners, as well as stunters and the odd power
kite. Overall I prefer Icarex (the old crisp stuff, we haven't seen the
new stuff here yet) for power kites, something soft like Carrigton for
stunters (although I probably use the new 1/2 once soft Icarex now) and
someting like Dragon for single line when I want a range of colours. In
fact for single line suff its usually a mix of whatever i can get in the
right colour.
Chris
kite legends
Thanks for passing on Wayne Hertels details regarding the MEFM Maxi
we had for sale.
Dragon cloth is probably marketed under various names worldwide but is sold in
Australia by Bainbrige/Aquabatten. It is sold as 3/4oz cloth and is a nylon
cloth. It is cheap retails around $11aus is reasonably fade resistant in the
non flouro colours and is/has been used by many manufacturers here and is very
popular with home kite builders as it is easy to work with. If you need any
further info contact me if you wish. In terms of quality it is at the other
end of the spectrum to any of the Icarex cloths.
Goodwinds
Steve McCormack
Baz Thrower wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jul 1998 18:38:09 GMT, ess...@kabelfoon.nl (Steve Holdoway
> and Julie Holdstock) wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 11 Jul 1998 22:34:48 -0600, Andy/Lorraine Goris
> ><go...@oneimage.com> wrote:
> >
> >>In looking at kite fabrics on the web, I came across two different types
> >>of
> >>Icarex: Icarex polyester (which apparantly has stopped production ?????)
> >>
> >>and Icarex Polycarbonate (which seems to be a more recent fabric).
> >>Can anyone enlighten me as to the difference between these two? I've
> >>never heard of a polycarbonate fabric before
>