Garland’s premium membranes are reinforced by a dual fiberglass and polyester scrim providing excellent tear and tensile strength while incorporating extended elongation characteristics providing a high-performance membrane for today’s building needs. Garland has combined two traditional reinforcement technologies, allowing our membranes to possess the superior strength of fiberglass while incorporating the elongation and fatigue resistance of polyester.
The benefits of the traditional technologies are maximized by combining a layer of polyester with field- and machine- directional fiberglass rovings. In addition to increased elongation properties incorporated in the membrane, the incorporated polyester layer provides the following benefits:
- The polyester acts as a interlaminate shock absorber, adding stability and distortion resistance to the reinforcement.
- The interlaminate layer of polyester also reduces the friction or stress between the incredibly high-tensile multi-directional fiberglass layers.
- The addition of polyester increases the membrane’s pin-hole resistance, resulting in a more impervious layer of protection.
- The polyester provides additional cohesion between the layers of fiberglass, creating a monolithic structure that allows the membrane to equally disperse loads and strains (strain energy).
Fiberglass Rovings
During manufacturing, fiberglass yarns are usually subject to numerous secondary-processing steps such as twisting, rolling, re-rolling, sizing and texturing. These secondary processing steps can damage the glass filaments, reducing strength and longevity. Garland’s scrim contains continuous fiberglass filaments or strands that do not go through these secondary processing steps, resulting in a higher level of quality and consistency.
Strain Energy
Strain energy is the amount of energy (both tensile and elongation) needed to break a material. Strain energy is commonly used by commodity manufacturers who promote polyester reinforcements because most polyester membranes have high elongation and low tensile. This translates into high strain energy. Many manufacturers use strain energy to promote the overall toughness of the material. On the other hand, membranes reinforced with fiberglass generally have high tensile and low elongation, translating into low amounts of strain energy. Garland’s dual-fiberglass and polyester reinforcements balance high elongation and high tensile strength, resulting in a high-performance membrane able to outperform our competition’s fiberglass- or polyester-reinforced products.
Contact your local Garland representative to learn more!
