Glued vs. Thermobonded

[JohnnyRudeClassics]

It's not the thickness of the material that is important. It's the quality of the fabric and whether it is glued or thermo bonded that is important. Hand glued PVC boats have anywhere from a two to six year average service life depending on UV levels.

How can you tell if an inflatable boat was glued versus thermo bonded / welded?

 

[Sea Rider]

Some inflatable brands states thermo bonded as a sales plus, the ones who don't usually are hand glued. All my inflatables have been or are hand glueded ones with 0 ungluing issues at least on seams on any one of them up to this day. Thermo weld method uses a middle flux strip in between both fabric which forms the tube, then is passed by a heat roll to vulcanize the seam which is faster versus doing same manualy with 2 part glue.

Happy Boating