Cuben and UV protection

[pig.slayer]

Just curious regarding Cuben and if it has any form of UV protection.
I noticed it came up and Raul's Thread.

I've a 0.74oz cuben tarp in oliver green on order.

When I'm out hunting I spend the middle of the day usually under my tarp in the hammock. In Australia sunburn is a serious issue. I try to picth in the shade but as the sun moves I allways end up in it eventually.

Would be nice if the cuben, even though quite transparent has some form of UV protection.

I don't seem to get burned under my spinn tarp ??.

[Bunk]

I was hoping to be able to lay in my HMG cuben tarp and catch a tan this summer

[WV]

I agree there's a need for some sort of sunshade option. Even with silnylon I don't like the sun hitting the tarp directly - hurts my eyes, and it's hot. When I took my cuben tarp to the beach I also took a big roll of 20" wide aluminized mylar and taped strips of it to the tarp, covering the entire surface. It worked, but I don't recommend it at all - too messy. I have often thought that an aluminized layer applied to cuben itself would be great - sort of a super-strong space blanket. I may ask Cubic Tech about that when I place another order, though I doubt it's an option, and I bet it would be very expensive if it was. It's not just people that need protection from UV - there's the tarp itself. Anybody know how polyester stands up to it? (That's another question for cubic tech.)

[LuckyJim]

I don't know about the UV protection from cuben fibre but it's semi-transparency won't offer much in the way of shade and I'd imagine would be very hot in any case.

I drape my quilt over the tarp when I want shade, whether using cuben or sil nylon.

[Brian]

Anybody know how polyester stands up to it? (That's another question for cubic tech.)

Polyester is much more UV resistant than nylon, which is one reason it is often used in sails and heavier balloon cloth over nylon.

In terms of cuben UV resistance, I did some brief tests last year and the material shows no relation between tensile/burst strength and UV exposure. If you can't get a clear answer from CT about how transparent the material is to UV I may be able to go back and repeat my experiments to try and get some sort of qualitative relationship.