SHADING THE FUTURE BASED ON EXPERIENCES FROM THE PAST

When it comes to Solar shading and glare control, unfortunately sunblinds are often an ‘afterthought’ . The building will have been designed and built with so called Solar efficient glass only to find out that shading systems are still required as the glass itself often does not do what it says on the tin.

By that time most blinds will look like a ‘bolt-on-job’ and stick out like a sore thumb, destroying the clear lines the architect had intended.

Most, but not all!

At Reflex-Rol U.K., a division of De Leeuw Ltd, with experience dating back to 1983, we pride ourselves in designing retrofit shading systems that blend in superbly with a buildings’ windows. Our blind materials/fabrics ( more on those later) are thin, meaning we can accommodate a 3,4 metre drop in a cassette/headbox of a mere 55 x 54 mm. These cassettes can be powder coated or anodised to any colour specified so we can match window frames / wall finishes and make it appear as a fully integrated system with the building. The same size cassette/headbox can be used for either manually operated systems or electrically driven blinds.

Triangular & Trapezoidal shapes.

Not every window is square or rectangular, triangular or trapezoidal shaped windows can pose a problem for most blinds – but not for Reflex-Rol as the systems can be engineered to fit many different shapes and still remain fully controllable either manually or electrically driven. As an example, Reflex-Rol was installed in a horizontal triangular skylight with 4 meters wide at the base and 8 meters length. See corporate video on our website www.reflex-rol.co.uk

Trapezoidal shapes? Think air traffic control towers. An example is the tower at Heathrow with 48 systems installed. 2 metres wide at the top, 1.8 meters wide at the bottom, 5,5 meters high and all running under 14 degrees out of vertical without touching the glass. Currently under construction are systems at 6,2 meters wide and trapezoidal in shape, also running at 14 degrees out of vertical.

The secret of its thermal performance lies in the fact that the blind ‘fabric’ is constructed from different layers of material, each with their own characteristics, yet not thicker than 0.2 mm.

The ‘fabric’ is then micro-embossed on a flat-plate thermal press, giving it stability and much enhanced thermal performance with Solar heat reflectance up to over 80%, depending on which ‘fabric’ is used, whilst maintaining a clear view of the outside World!

Further and more detailed information can be found on our website www.reflex-rol.co.uk and the group’s website www.deleeuw-ltd.co.uk