Does anyone here have any experience with working with rip stop nylon?

Looking for info on how to sew it and glue it for inflatables.

Thanks!

I used to use if for spring flowers on the outer leaves. It is a pain as it repels glue.

I am guessing that you will need to take the seams and fold the fabric together and over a couple of times before stitching it. That will help seal the seams.

I would play with a small unit and use a hair dryer to inflate and test it.

Richard

I was wondering if there was any heat seal or meltable way of gluing seams on this reliably.

I imagine for spring flowers that WAS a pain... I can only imagine!

When using nylon fabrics, a form of hotknife for cutting, and fusing the edges is highly suggested. When I sew with it, I use a tile counter top and a mini butane torch with a light touch to fuse all the edges after making cuts. Hot glue does not hold it very well or for very long in my experience, though there may be special hi-temp glues that will work.
Sewing with the right sized needle and thread, and a flat felled or small welted seam helps keep moisture and air leaks to a minimum.
There are seam sealing compounds one can buy at the camping store for nylon, but a warm candle rubbed over seams will also help to fill in the stitch holes- not sure how it holds for inflation uses.
NOTE: if the fan is constant on, then some air escape is needed, in these cases regular seamed sewing seems to hold well- my inflatable sumo suit for halloween is an example, flat felled seams but no attempt to seal or stop the slight air flow.
You will want to make sure the thread count on your nylon will do what you need, and some of the fabrics are coated, while others are not. Hold up the fabric to your lips and try to blow air through it. if it passes too easily, it might not do what you want. Never having made what you are describing, some experimentation might be in order.
Kay

Thank you Kay!!!

That was very very helpful. When I am done with the R and D phase of the new project I will share as many of my findings here as seem useful to others!

Thanks again!

I am in the business of manufacturing advertising inflatables. Even with a constant air flow provided by a fan or blower, some coating on the fabric is needed. Cheap ripstop fabrics with minimal coatings will fray excessively when cut. These must be hemmed. With a blower, as indicated above, sealing the needle holes is not recommended as some air loss is needed in order to prevent the whole thing from coming apart!

Not all ripstops are the same...there are many different weights ranging from 1/2 ounce (aka spinnaker cloth) to heavy industrial type fabrics that are rated by the denier (individual thread weight) such as 210 denier.

If you are not using a continuous source of air from a blower or fan, you will be better off avoiding any stitching. Heat sealing or seam welding will be your best option...and, in that case, ripstop nylon will not be the fabric to use.

Ultimately, the proper fabric to use will depend on what you are trying to achieve.

Good luck with your experiments!

.... until then we can only speculate... actually, a few weeks ago, I did think of using something which may well be similar for a car production! - (However, after a little thought, I abandoned the idea!)