GLOSSARY · SO THE SPECIFICATION MEANS THE SAME THING TO BOTH OF US

Glossary

The same product is called different things in different markets, and two suppliers can use one word to mean two constructions. These definitions are what we mean when we write them.

一句话结论

Most confusion in this category is vocabulary rather than engineering. 'Inflatable tent' covers three unrelated constructions. 'Air dome' means something specific and different from 'air wall'. Russian buyers search for pneumatic-frame tents; Spanish-speaking markets split between two different words for inflatable depending on the country. If a specification and a quotation use the same word for different things, the comparison is meaningless.

Construction

Drop-stitch DWF · double wall fabric: A textile construction where two layers of base fabric are joined by tens of thousands of internal threads of equal length. Inflated, the threads hold the faces parallel and the wall becomes a rigid panel of uniform thickness. Used in paddleboards, boat decks, gym mats and shelter walls.
Air wall emerging term: A structure whose walls are inflated drop-stitch panels carrying the load, as distinct from a fabric skin over inflated tubes. Not yet a settled industry term — we use it because it names the difference precisely.
Air beam airbeam · air frame: Construction using a small number of large-diameter inflated tubes as arches, with a fabric skin spanning between them. The tubes are the structure. Most inflatable military tents on the market are built this way.
Air-supported structure air dome: A single membrane held up by internal air pressure across its whole area, with blowers running continuously and entry through an airlock. Losing pressure brings the roof down. The dominant construction for inflatable sports halls.
DST Drop Stitch Technology: Losberger De Boer's product name for their drop-stitch shelter modules. The underlying fabric construction is not proprietary and is produced by several mills.
Chamber: An independently inflated section of a structure. Chambering is what allows a puncture to soften one panel rather than deflate the whole building.

Material

Base fabric base cloth: The woven substrate beneath the coating, commonly 1000D × 1000D polyester. Denier, thread density and coating thickness are three separate specifications; a single gsm figure conceals all three.
Denier D: A measure of yarn linear density. 1000D refers to the yarn used in the base cloth, and it is the industry reference for this product class.
PVC coating: The default coating: lower cost, mature high-frequency welding, wide colour range. Stiffens in cold and ages faster than TPU.
TPU coating: Higher-cost coating that stays flexible at low temperature, ages better under UV and is lighter for equal strength. Commonly quoted at 30 to 60 percent above PVC, though the real figure moves with specification and order size.
High-frequency welding HF welding · RF welding: Joining coated fabric by dielectric heating rather than stitching or gluing. The seam is a fused weld, which is why coated technical fabric can hold air pressure at all.
Chamber depth wall thickness: The distance between the two faces of a drop-stitch panel, set by the internal thread length. Commercially available depth runs roughly 5 to 30 cm.

Performance and compliance

Working pressure: The internal pressure at which a structure is designed to operate. It determines air source sizing and is a prerequisite for any structural verification. We do not publish ours until measured.
EN 13501: European reaction-to-fire classification. Not interchangeable with NFPA 701 or GB standards — testing to the wrong system is money spent for nothing.
NFPA 701: North American flame propagation test for textiles used in temporary structures. Widely required for tents and membrane structures in the United States.
EN 1869: European standard for fire-service rescue cushions. Life-safety rescue equipment without a valid report to this or an equivalent standard must not be used for its purpose.
EN 13731: European standard for pneumatic lifting bags used in rescue. Rated lift capacity falls as lift height increases, so the headline figure is not the working figure at full extension.

What other markets call it

Пневмокаркасная палатка Russian: The standard Russian industry term, literally 'pneumatic-frame tent'. A direct translation of 'inflatable tent' gives надувная палатка, which is understood but is not what professional buyers search.
Палатка МЧС Russian: 'EMERCOM tent' — shelter for the Russian emergency ministry. A major search term in that market with no equivalent in English.
Inflable / hinchable Spanish: Two words for inflatable: inflable in Latin America, hinchable in Spain. Covering only one loses half the Spanish-speaking market.
Carpa neumática Spanish: 'Pneumatic tent' — the professional Spanish term, parallel to the Russian usage.
خيمة قابلة للنفخ Arabic: 'Inflatable tent' in Arabic. مستشفى ميداني ('field hospital') is the standard term for the medical application.

本页更新于 2026-08-28