Air-Supported Structures

Air-Supported Structures for Large Clear-Span Applications

An air-supported structure is a building held up by the air inside it. There is no frame and no interior columns: a blower keeps the internal pressure slightly above the outside air, and that pressure difference tensions the membrane into a dome.

Because the membrane acts as the primary structural element, air-supported structures can create clear-span enclosures for sports facilities, storage buildings, event venues, and other applications where uninterrupted interior space is important.

Air-inflated structures put the air inside the structural members rather than the occupied space, so fabric beams and arches carry the load and the interior stays at normal pressure. Retractable and hybrid systems combine an air-supported shell with rigid elements or with a mechanism that opens the enclosure seasonally.

Engineered Fabric Solutions for Air-Supported Structures

Fabric panels and the engineering behind them. Our work on air-supported projects is panel and assembly fabrication rather than whole-dome supply:

• Replacement panels for domes, peak tops, and tensioned membranes in service, fabricated to the existing panel breaks and connection details from your drawings or from field measurements.
• Air-inflated fabric beams for airbeam-supported structures and tents, where welded fabric tubes act as the structural members. See tent structures.
• Fabricated fabric assemblies for the parts of an air-supported project that are not the shell itself: vestibules, liners, covers, and custom-patterned pieces.
• Engineering and drawings: patterning, seam and edge details, and code-referenced load work for the fabric elements, with professional engineer certification where the project requires it.

Need a complete air-supported structure? Let us know early, and we’ll connect you with the right team at Seaman Corporation.

How Air Domes Compare

It depends on whether you need the span more than you need the freedom. An air dome gives you the largest column-free interior for the money, on a standardized seasonal form, and requires a blower running continuously to stay standing. A custom tensile structure gives you an architectural form designed for the site with no mechanical dependency, and a frame structure gives you a modular, semi-custom building with a rigid frame doing the work.

The full side-by-side comparison of the three is on our custom tensile structures page, and frame systems are covered under pre-engineered frame structures. We fabricate the fabric system for all three, so the recommendation is not a sales position.

Certified Installation Partners Complete Every Project

Your project is completed by our network of certified installation partners.Air-supported structures are erected, pressurized, and commissioned by specialist crews, and the mechanical package is part of that scope. Where you need such a crew, we work with installers who are already familiar with our panels, our keder details, and our engineering.

Scope is defined from the ground up. Foundations and attachment structures are specified but excluded from our scope; our engineers provide the reactions at every anchor point so your local engineer can design those elements for the same loads under the governing building code.

Fabric Sourcing

On an air-supported project the membrane is the building, so the fabric spec is the structural spec. We are not a fabric distributor. Every membrane we quote is a material we engineer and fabricate with, chosen for the loads, the lifespan, the light transmission, and the finish your project needs.

Behind that choice is a fabric maker. Lightweight Structures is part of Seaman Corporation, which has been making industrial coated fabrics in the United States since 1949: yarn, weaving and knitting, coating, finished membrane, all under one roof. A question about how a dome membrane behaves in service is answered by the people who made it.

The air-supported dome membrane itself, the fabric a dome manufacturer buys by the roll, comes from Shelter-Rite Architectural Fabrics, the Seaman Corporation brand that has supplied architectural membrane for air-supported domes, frame structures, and tensile structures for decades. Lightweight Structures is the panel fabrication and engineering side of the same company. If your question is about the material, start with Shelter-Rite; if it is about fabricated panels and engineered assemblies, start here.