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GORE-TEX® Fabrics

Over the last twenty years WL Gore's patented Gore-Tex® membrane has proved itself to offer unsurpassed performance and has kept people dry no matter what the weather has thrown at them. Gore's revolutionary ePTFE membrane was the first fabric to offer users an impenetrable barrier against wind and water while maintaining breathability. Gore-Tex is the most tested fabric of it's kind and this is why we use it because we know we can trust it to keep you dry.

Taslan :: is the most used and best loved of all the traditional Gore-Tex fabrics. We use the three layer version on our Perma Gaiter to give you the perfect combination of breathability and durability at a price you can afford.

Milano :: is one of the toughest Gore-Tex face fabrics available. Woven from Dupont Cordura nylon yarns, Milano 3 layer fabric is the ideal fabric to use on our hard wearing, hyper durable Frost gaiter.

Armacore :: is the toughest most durable GoreÐTex fabric available. Kevlar strands are weaved into the face fabric to give it super durable properties. This also makes it the most expensive commercially available Gore-Tex on the market, but we have put it to good use in our Karakoram Gaiter giving you the ultimate in randed gaiters for extreme use.

Gore-Tex¨ XCR :: (Extended Comfort Range) fabric is a unique 3-layer construction which averages 25% more breathability than any other three-layer Gore-Tex¨ fabric ever produced. It has been designed to be used where maximum durability is required but the weight has not been compromised. We use two variations of the Gore-Tex¨ XCRª technology. XCRª Raptor and XCRª Lofoten.
The Stretch Raptor material is a 3 layer Gore-Tex using WL Gore's extended comfort range membrane with a face fabric which gives it some unusual qualities. The use of Lycra woven into the nylon face fabric makes Stretch Raptor the first waterproof breathable stretch Gore-Tex and gives our Raptor Gaiter it's sleek lines and perfect fit.



Fig 1 :: Gore Rain Testing Facility

Fig :: 2 Internal Temperatures

Over the past year we have been working on a unique range of single skin tents, bivi's & shelters, centered around Exchange Lite, a gas permeable GORE-TEX ¨ fabric. Gas Permeable GORE-TEX¨ fabric has at last allowed us to develop products that can really benefit from single skin technology, which both work and bring real meaning to the word 'breathable'.

Conventional waterproof fabrics do not allow oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to escape, thus never providing a totally safe sealed environment. This can lead to heat loss & the ingress of rain, sleet & snow. Exchange Lite Gore-Tex fabric allows water vapor to freely move through its membrane just like conventional Gore-Tex fabrics. Exchange Lite is however truly breathable as it allows O2 & CO2 to exchange through the membrane. This allows totally sealed use for superior environmental protection and improved insulation.

The graph below demonstrates the average concentration of CO2 build up in a sealed gas permeable shelter remains less than 0.5%, above this there is a risk to life. An O2 concentration of below 16% presents a risk to life, Exchange Lite produces an average concentration of 20%, just 1% below average atmospheric concentration.

The fabric has been tested in extreme wet conditions (Fig 1), & has demonstrated now impairment to the gas permeability of the fabric.

The testing also showed that significantly increase temperatures can be achieve inside a sealed bivi bag (Fig 2). For example, testing with an external temperature of -20¼c the recorded temperature around the head was just -1¼c. We repeated this test in a two person single skin tent constructed from Exchange Lite with a ambient temperature of -26¼c, the ambient tent temperature was -18¼c, around the head area this increased to -11¼c.