Vectran®: The High-Performance Webbing Revolutionizing Safety-Critical Industries
Vectran® webbing is a high-performance material, recognized for its exceptional strength, durability and resistance to extreme conditions. As a result, this makes it ideal to use for demanding applications. Made from liquid crystal polymer, Vectran™ fibers offer high tensile strength, along with excellent resistance toflex fatigue, chemicals, and extreme temperatures.
Key Characteristics
A most important, key characteristic of Vectran® webbing is its very low creep. This results in minimal elongation or deformation under stress over time. Also, this quality makes it particularly well-suited for applications where maintaining dimensional stability under continuous load is crucial.
- High tensile strength
- Flex and fold fatigue resistance
- Extreme hot and cold environment property retention
- Low elongation
- Minimal creep
Industries Utilizing Vectran® Webbing
Vectran® is a preferred choice in PPE protective textiles, inflatables, and tensile structures for both specialty commercial and aerospace applications, its high performance and reliability.
Applications
Because of these properties, Vectran® fiber is frequently used in manufacturing webbing and other high-strength components. In applications that require durability and minimal stretch, this fiber webbing offers a superior solution. Given this, its ability to maintain structural integrity under prolonged stress makes it essential in safety-critical applications where failure is unacceptable.
Some sample applications are:
- Inflatable systems – for example, aerostats and space habitats
- Harness and bridle applications for aerospace deceleration systems
- Safety restraints
- Tethers and bridles
Bally Ribbon Mills wove Luna’s embedded fiber optic sensors into Vectran® webbing and then later integrated them into an inflatable test article that was tested at NASA Johnson Space Center. Read more about this here.