Inflatable Technology

Inflatable technology is simple and complicated. It is a combination of art, design and engineering production.  Generally, inflatable can be divided into two major types, air-tight and non-airtight.

For air-tight products, once they are inflated, they will keep the shape for a certain period of time without the help of an air blower.  Most of inflatable toys like swimming floating devices, and beach balls, etc. are all air-tight products.  For air-tight products,  high frequency welding is the most common way to put fabric together and create a smooth whole piece.  High end air tight inflatable, such as water raft, use glue instead of welding, providing stronger bond and durability.

Due to the limitation of welding machine, the size is critical in air-tight products.  Small size product can get excellent air-tight result and will last very long time once inflated.  However, it will be difficult to make the big size products air-tight and it may not last inflated very long.  All air-tight products need mold and machine set up.

For non-airtight products, sewing and patching is the common way to finish the job.  All non-airtight products need a air blower to blow it up and keep blowing to maintain the shape.  Non-airtight products are labor intensive job especially for those giant inflatables.  All pieces can only be stitched together manually.  But a good advantage of non-airtight is that it is suitable for small job but in big size, such as inflatable bouncers and advertising inflatables, etc.

In addition, printing is a very important component of all inflatable products.  Inflatable can only create the general shape, but prints and art work can present detail and art work.

Material for Inflatable

Inflatable products use all kinds of fabrics.  No matter what  kind of fabrics they are, they have the following characteristics:  durable enough for specific inflatable and general/specific usage,  appropriate melting point for air-tight products, and good air-tight characters to hold pressure inside, etc.

Generally, inflatable fabrics are all PVC material or PVC/PU coated nylon material.  Its thickness starts from 0.18MM to 1.00MM or thicker.  But most of fabric will fall within this range.  For example, most air-tight inflatable toys are made of 0.18MM or 0.24MM PVC, while inflatable bouncers and jumping houses use 0.50-0.60MM PVC/PU coated material.

If it is non-airtight inflatable, then the fabric has more choices, from nylon fabric to mesh reinforced, PVC or PU coated fabric.  Non air-tight can also use a mixture of several kind of fabrics to make colorful inflatables.

Beside fabrics, air blower is another part of whole complete set.  Air blower can be gas-powered or electric-powered.  The power of air blower depends on the size of inflatable.  Generally, the bigger the inflatable is, the more power air blower is needed to blow it up and keep it shape.  Also air blower can be internal or external.  Some small inflatable may come with internal air blower, so you just need to plug and play and get the inflatable set up in couple of minutes.

Limitation of Inflatable

Inflatable products do have many advantages such as easy to set up, easy to clean and maintain, convenient to store and move around, etc.  But it also comes with several cons:

Limited shape - inflatable can not have right corner like hard material.  Due to even pressure inside the inflatable and soft fabric, all corners will be rounded by the pressure.  Also for the same reason, the inflatable will be hard to have flat surface, because inside pressure will pop up.  You can have relative flat surface, but can't be flat like a wood or metal surface.

Limited detail - inflatable can only generate the outline and shape of the products but it can't be as detailed as a piece of carved artwork.  A lot of details will need to be added by painting.  Even in this way, inflatable can only give you something of a "look like", especially in small/detail area.

Limited size - for air-tight products, due to limit of welding machine, the size of air-tight product is limited.  

Cost to make inflatable

There are several factors affecting the cost of an inflatable:

Quantity - quantity is the most important factor in most of inflatables, especially those small size products.  Fixed cost of each batch process  plus tooling fee and molding will make small quantity job very expensive.  

Fabric - fabric is another factor in the total product cost.  Generally the thicker the fabric, the higher the cost.

Air blower - air blower costs lot of money in all non-airtight inflatable products.  The cost range if from $100 to $700 depending on  your needs.  For example, an air blower for air dancer costs around $300.00, almost 50% of a normal air dancer.

Labor - labor is a major cost component for all inflatable.  Since most of inflatable is manually stitched/sewed and/or glued, it needs lot of working hours plus painting and art work to finish a job.  Some complicated jobs requiring lot of detailed art work will definitely cost more.