Torch-On Tear Resistance
Yes, as you put it is indeed a bit of an “old fashioned question” in today’s roofing world.
The reason why it is old fashioned is that some “older generation” customers, ignoring the developments in the polyester industry, are still under the impression that the more difficult a membrane is to tear by hand, the stronger the characteristics of its polyester reinforcement are. While this may have been true 20 years ago, it is clearly not the case anymore.
In today’s’ industry there are high performance polyesters possessing far better impregnation, stability , tensile and elongation performances, when compared to polyesters of a lower grade , which may well appear to provide a better quality when only subjected to a hand tearing test.
Even if we do understand that it may not always be easy to make these points clear, when talking to some “old hands”, no efforts should be spared to educate roofing contractors still anchored to old preconceptions!
In our choice of the polyesters to be used in our membranes we put maximum emphasis in selecting polyesters offering the best characteristics of dimensional stability and isotropy, which are two of the most important factors for a trouble free application and life expectancy of any membranes.
