Poly vs. Vinyl Tarps

What’s the Difference Between Poly & Vinyl Tarps?

 

At Steel Guard Safety Corps., our mission is to make the world a safer place to work by manufacturing some of the highest-quality industrial safety equipment on the market. Though we offer an array of products ranging from industrial safety curtains and dividers to welding sheets, some of our most useful products are our heavy duty tarps. We offer tarps in a variety of sizes and grades, but if you’re trying to choose between vinyl tarps and poly tarps, it can be a tough call. Before you make your decision, here’s what you need to know.

Poly Tarps vs. Vinyl Tarps

While both poly and vinyl tarps do more or less the same thing and look very similar, they each come with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Fundamentally, the difference between poly tarps and vinyl tarps is one of material: poly tarps are made from woven polyethylene that’s coated with a polyethylene laminate, while vinyl tarps are made using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) scrims with a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film laminate. While both the poly and vinyl tarps made by Steel Guard stand up to the most rigorous standards of performance and durability, the difference in material does mean changes in performance.

Generally speaking, vinyl tarps are heavier and somewhat more heavy-duty than poly tarps. Vinyl is a denser material, giving vinyl tarps more weight than their poly counterparts. Vinyl is also remarkably strong, making vinyl tarps extremely resistant to abrasion, tearing, and wind whip. In applications where the tarp could take a lot of contact damage or there are expected to be high winds, vinyl tarps are often the right call.

That said, we manufacture our poly tarps to be super heavy-duty: they feature reinforced hems, heavy duty grommets, and a heat-welded interior that makes our poly tarps waterproof. We also offer poly tarps designed for extreme applications, including our Fire Resistant Poly Tarps, Intrinsically Water Resistant Poly Tarps, and our heavy duty polyethylene tarps, which boast tensile strength up to 300 lbs per square inch. Poly tarps are generally cheaper and somewhat less resistant than vinyl tarps – although the ones we manufacture here at Steel Guard can stand with the best of them.

Contact Your Heavy Duty Curtain Manufacturer Today

If you have further questions about the difference between poly and vinyl tarps, or if you’d like suggestions on which is right for your application, we’re always here to help. Reach out to us at our contact page or give us a call at 1-800-347-8368. We look forward to hearing from you, and we’re excited to make your workspace a safer place!