Seaman© fabrics

Seaman© fabrics have a number of distinct advantages which makes them a popular fabric for architectural and industrial applications. Seaman Corporation© manufactures PVC coated polyester fabrics in the USA. Due to domestic manufacturing, custom manufacturing runs can be delivered in a shorter timeframe than overseas manufacturers. Seaman© can also provide a number of their fabric styles in a version that meets the Berry Amendment (10 U.S. Code 2533a – domestically sourced fabrics). Seaman provides both weft-inserted (warp knitted) and woven fabrics, which each have distinct advantages and different behavior when tensioned in both warp and fill direction. Woven fabric exhibits a stronger crimp interaction, the property of fabric to shrink in one direction (or tighten when kept in place) while tensioned in the other direction.

Seaman© publishes in-house produced bi-axial testing for most of their architectural fabric.

The popular architectural fabrics utilize various topcoats to protect the PVC surface and enhance the self-cleaning and UV-protective properties. This includes acrylic topcoats, PVDF (Kynar©), acrylic/PVDF blend and PVF (Tedlar©) applied as a laminated film. For the PVC coating itself, a number of coating options are available.

For industrial use, Seaman© provides XR3 and XR5 fabrics which use different compounds to improve the properties of the standard PVC coated polyester fabrics. They have applications in potable water, chemically exposed panels, higher temperature requirements, geotextile, biogas, and other specialty applications.

The architectural fabrics are marketed under the  Shelter-Rite® brand name.