The fabric of a tent is its most crucial component. Depending on its location within the tent, it is primarily categorized into outer tent fabric, inner tent fabric, and groundsheet fabric. This chapter focuses on fabrics commonly used in recreational camping tents.

Common outer tent fabrics include: polyester, oxford cloth, nylon, cotton, canvas, and polyester-cotton blends.

1. Polyester generally refers to polyester fiber, a synthetic fiber derived from petroleum. It offers excellent wrinkle resistance and shape retention. When used for tents, polyester fabric can be dyed to achieve any Pantone color. Through post-processing, it can be made waterproof, flame-retardant, and UV-resistant, making it the most widely used fabric for tents.

Polyester is known as polyester in English. When reviewing tent fabric specifications, prefixes like 190T, 170T, 63D, or 75D are commonly encountered. These denote polyester fabric density, where:

T denotes fabric density, representing the total number of warp and weft yarns per inch. Higher T values indicate denser fabric. Common polyester densities include 210T, 190T, and 170T.

D denotes the yarn weight unit. A higher number before D indicates thicker yarn. A formula exists to calculate D: Denier (D) = g/L × 9000, where g is the yarn weight (grams) and L is the yarn length (meters).

For tent fabrics, waterproofing is often required. This is achieved through fabric coating and seam sealing during post-processing. Seam sealing occurs during production, while coating is applied during fabric manufacturing. Common coatings include PU, PA, PVC, and silver coating.