Lindsey Coats Coats 1

March 31st 2010

Mr. Smith/Dr. Immel

The Inflat-a-tent

Introduction

(Figure1)

http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/rhode-island/images/s/camping.jpg

Picture yourself on a hot, summer day and you just hiked five miles to

your campsite. Success! You're finally there. You relax by making a campfire

for dinner and sitting under a tree for shade. However, night is falling very

quickly and your tent needs to be set up. It is already dark, the mosquitoes

are out, and for some peculiar reason it became very cold. Also, one of the

poles from the tent is missing, and the other one won't snap together. There

is absolutely no way you will be able to pitch a tent with it being so dark. On

the bright side, there is a new and improved tent that has been created

recently, that is easy to use and easy to carry. Introducing...The Inflatable

Tent!-The tent that is easy pitch and no hassle. It consists of an air mattress
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attached to the tent for less space when packing your car. It has the same

similarities as a kids jump house; air flows through it, but in the inflatable

tent, the air is trapped inside and does not leak out. An air mattress

attached to the tent already makes it easy to bring with you without having

to carry multiple items around when packing your car or unpacking it.

Branch of Engineering

No matter what you are doing, you are using some kind of

engineering. In total, there are nineteen different kinds; however the main

branches are aerospace, chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical. An

inflatable tent is difficult to place under a branch of engineering; the only

kind that fit the description was civil engineering. It is a professional

discipline that deals with design and construction. It has been around for

many years; the earliest practices of civil engineering were between 4000

and 2000 BC in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Humans began to abandon

being nomads and needed to find a way to create a permanent shelter for

everyone. Houses and buildings are a must in towns and villages, so people

needed to know how to build a shelter that could last though any kind of

weather or tragedy.
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Previous Designs

(Figure 2)

http://www.coloradoyurt.com/new2007/img/large/warm_tipis.jpg

During the present day, tents are used for recreational uses, festivals,

weddings, etc. On the other hand, people many years ago used them as

shelter, and were usually their home. Tipis, yurts, and tabernacles are great

examples of tents and shelter.

The Tipi is like a Christmas tree; there is decorating involved and

adding ornaments to make it look stylish. Indians and nomads called them

tipis, consisting of a set of ten poles covered in animal skin, an inner canvas,

and a skin door. Most tipis in a village were not painted, and if they were, it

was in accordance with their tribal design such as geometric portrayals of

celestial bodies, animal designs, or personal experiences (war or hunting).

If the tipis were not painted, then they were decorated with pendants and
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colored medallions that were embroidered with dyed porcupine

quills. Also, fashionable-well, what was fashionable to then at the time-

ornaments were used to add the uniqueness of their shelter. Buffalo horns

and tails, tufts of buffalo and horse hair, bear claws and buckskin fringe

were few of many animal items that were used as ornaments to decorate

their home.

What is very unique about this style of tent is the opening at the top. When

families need a warm house or need to cook food, they set up a small fire in

the center of the tent.

(Figure 3)

http://centralasiannomad.com/images/yurts.jpg

Nomads in the steppes of Central Asia called their houses yurts. It is a

portable felt covered, lattice-framed, (criss cross pattern) structure. It has a

circular wooden frame with a felt cover that is made from the wool of the

flocks of sheep that accompany the nomads. It is all held together with

ropes or ribbons, and can be dismantled to be brought with them wherever

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they travel to.

The wooden crown of the yurt was very important in some communities. It

always remained intact, even when the yurt itself was rebuilt or repaired. It

was passed from father to son when the father passed away.

The 'tabernacle' tent has a historic story to them. It is the tent of Moses

and the Israelis when they were on their conquest to the Promised Land.

Four layers of curtains shielded the inside of the tabernacle from the sun and

rain. It was made out of animal skins, such as ram skins and porpoise skins;

linen was also woven in to the curtains. However, one of the layers was

made purely out of goats' hair. It was a Holy Place, with a courtyard and a

high fence to go along with it.

Current Designs

(Figure 4)

http://cache.backpackinglight.com/backpackinglight/user_uploads/1232827093_09598.jpg

There are still many kinds of tents in our modern day. However, most

of them are similar, but can either be simple tents or complicated, added
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with extra variations to it. There are three different designs of tents: A

single wall tent, another single wall sent (with a flysheet) and a double wall

tent.

A single wall tent is the simplest tent you can create. There is only

one waterproof layer of fabric attached to the ground with two poles keeping

the shelter up. The next kind of shelter is also a single wall tent, but with a

flysheet. It is the most common kind of tent that is used when camping.

There is an extra layer that overlaps the roof for when it rains, the rain falls

to the side instead of inside. For more serious camping, a double wall tent is

used. It is built in a way where it seems like there are two tents attached to

each other, but it is only one tent with an outer layer extending to the

ground and the inner tent being waterproof.

When talking about tents, there are many words that are not said as much

as others. Some are used frequently, such as rain sheet, ground sheet,

poles, and stakes, but only a few know what a vestibule is. Rain sheets and

ground sheets are pretty evident; one is to protect the inside of the tent

from rain, the other is used to provide a waterproof barrier between the

ground and a sleeping bag. Poles provide extra support and stakes can be

optional when pitching a tent. They are tent pegs used to fasten the tent to

the ground if for some reason it was a very windy day. It is there for

stability. There is also one more thing and it is located outside of the tent for

storage. It is called a vestibule, and usually stores items such as backpacks,

cooking items, and small equipment.

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What Materials Were Used?

A good amount of materials were used for this project. It is evident

that a tent that was already made was used for this project, and other ideas

were added onto it. Since this is an inflatable tent, it consists of four bike

tubes that meet up in the middle and a PVC pipe that holds all of the bike

tubes together. Rubber cement is also used to glue the bike tube to the pipe

in order to keep the air from leaking out. To be on the safe side though,

electrical tape was wrapped around the outside multiple times. At the end,

zip ties were zipped around it one more time, to keep any air from trying to

leak out. The air mattress was connected to the bike tubes, for extra comfort

while camping. Also, the bike tubes needed to be attached to the tent so

umbrella fabric was sewed to where the poles used to be, and put through

them so the tent can inflate properly.

How The Idea Came About

We at FELC are adventures at heart. Camping, rock climbing, anything

outdoors is at the top of our lists at our company. Camping can be very

irritating and stressful, however, with the products that will be sold at our

stores will help any person have a stress-free camping experience.

How It Was Built

The inflatable tent was not an easy thing to build. It has its many ups

and downs still, but perhaps more ups than downs. To begin with, there lies
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a tent on the ground. Without poles, it cannot be pitched. Replacing the

poles with bike tubes is what makes up half of the project. There are four

bike tubes attached to each other in the middle with a PVC pipe.

(Figure 5) The PVC pipe that goes on top of the tent.

(Figure 6) The bike tubes that help raise the tent.

Rubber cement was put inside the tube and around the pipe to keep it

together. Rubber cement is not strong enough to withhold the pressure of air

going through it, so electrical tape was wrapped around multiple times to
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seal the air bubbles. A lighter was very important as well, since electrical

tape shrinks when heat is added. There was no way air would be going

through.

Umbrella fabric and tent fabric are very similar. The bike tubes needed

to be attached to the tent in order for the inflatable tent to actually inflate.

By using only a needle and strong thread, we replaced the fabric of where

the poles would go through with our own fabric, just the right size for the

tube to fit through, but not big enough for it to move around too much. On

each of the four bike tubes, there are three pieces of fabric, all to the correct

measurement and in the same spot.

(Figure 7) (The fabric that is used to keep the bike tubes attached to the tent.

The air mattress is obviously beneath the tent, with an extra tarp

around the bottom to provide a layer between the ground and the mattress.

The tarp had to be cut since it was too large, and since everyone knows that
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a tarp unravels, the ends were melted together and taped with more

electrical tape. Afterwards, the air mattress was inflated and stuck under the

tent for measurements. The tarp was sewn to the tent in a way where the

tent could still be folded as small as possible to not take up so much space.

What Problems Did You Face?

The process of constructing a product like this was tedious. Every

single little thing that was worked on had a problem to it; there was nothing

easy about making an inflatable tent. Sewing on the fabric to the right

measurements took a good amount of time, as well as gluing the bike tubes

together with many different kinds of glue. It was unfortunate to know that

it takes more to seal a bike tube than just using rubber cement. Other glues

did not work either; most of them made problems even worse by dissolving

the outer layer of a PVC pipe.

What Else Do You Need To Do?

The rest of the prototype needs to be finished. Our plans for the next

few days are to successfully attach everything that is needed to be attached,

and to test to see if it successfully inflates. Once it works, FELC will be able

to sell it for a good price of eighty dollars, twenty dollars more than a

regular tent. We will be competing against other stores that sell outdoor

items such as REI, The North Face, Big 5, Walmart, etc. We plan to increase

in size if the product is popular.

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Works Cited

“Civil Engineering” March 17th 2010

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering>

“Tents” March 18th 2010

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent>
“Tipis” March 19th 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipi

“The Tabernacle Place” March 20th 2010

<http://www.the-tabernacle-
place.com/tabernacle_articles/tabernacle_basic_layout.aspx>

"Yurts” March 19th 2010

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt>