What is a Sonic welded polyethylene floor?

Answer 1

I don't know about the sonic part because sonic implies that there is sound vibrations being used. A welded polyethylene floor of a tent would mean that the seams are melted together to provide a water resistant or waterproof floor for the tent. This sounds good to me. I hate to wake up and find myself floating around the inside of the tent. Been there, did that, didn't like it. Sometimes when manufacturers sell us something they give them big technical sounding names like "Sonic Welded Poly Floor." Ooooohhh... sonic welding, that must be good. I'm not saying that it isn't but names aren't always that important. If it comes with a guarantee that it won't leak, that sounds better to me. <correction> The sonic weld you are referring to is "ultrasonic welding", which uses a piezoelectric crystal. This crystal, when electric currenet is supplied to it, changes in length at very rapid rates. This rapid expansion and contraction causes a weld-head, which can be made of various materials depending on what type of plastic or thickness you are welding, to pulsate and sort of hammer on the plastic at a high frequency. This high frequency, aka ultrasonics, causes the plastic molecules to get excited and share electrons between the two joining surfaces, thus forming your weld. Also, this process creates no heat on the actual weld head, and in turn it creates a superior bond when compared to heat weldng plastic material.