In a previous post, I reported on the strength of a polyester tent fabric that had been exposed to the elements for 500 days. It was much stronger than a silnylon that had been exposed for the same period. At the time I speculated that the silver coating on the outside of the test samples may have been the main cause of the UV protection, but I forgot that I had an inside out sample that had been exposed for the same period and that it may show that the speculation was probably true.
Somewhat belatedly, at 540 days I prepared to strength test the pathetically bleached sample. However, it started to fall apart while preparing it for testing with the empty load testing bucket (~1kg).
Consequently, I can confidently say that the silver coating on the sun-exposed surface of a tent should provide a lot of useful protection from UV damage.
For more details, please see my full post Silver-coated tent fabric and UV decay.
Tim
