As you know bungee cords are popular using in your car & travel, or around the home for storage, or for your summer camping. But do you know how to choose a high-quality bungee cord? In first, you should know the material of cord core. The cord core is normally made of rubber strips, latex strips or mixed. Of course, natural latex has many advantages which include strong elasticity, good toughness, odorless and eco-friendly, etc. But it also comes with high cost. In many cases people use mixed strips for bungee cord core. There is no a formular to illustrate how many latex silks are the most practical & economical. It all depends your requests about tensile strength and endurance. Check with your supplier and remember in mind: the more latex silks, the better in quality and the higher for cost.
Secondly you should check woven sheath of bungee cord. Although almost all woven sheathes are made of Polypropylene fiber (PP). But you should know that some suppliers use recycled fiber for the sheath. The surface of recycled fiber is matt, with low strength and easy to break. The new high-strength PP fiber has a good gloss, which plays a role in strengthening the tension of the cord. In addition, we should also observe whether the woven sheath is thick enough. The thicker it is, the safer it is.
Then we should check the hooks of bungee cord. From the material point of view, there are 3 types hook in market. They are steel hook, plastic hook and plastic hook with metal core. For steel hook, you have to know the diameter of hook wire. Some supplier only tells you diameter which includes the plastic coat. That is not correct. And, if the steel hook is heat treated, its performance will be improved. But you can not tell which one is heat treated, you have to check with supplier carefully. For plastic hook, we recommend Nylon material because it is strong enough. For the last type, we should check material of plastic sheath, and the connection between hook and cord since it is easy to break from here.
Finally, you can also check if the bungee cord holds any certification such as GS, AS/NZS, PAHS, REACH, etc. Check with james@ql-tools.com if want to know more about bungee cords.
