A new fabric for interior blinds, which combines light and heat control properties and retains good indoor to outdoor visibility, has been unveiled by Hunter Douglas.
Sunscreen Panama Chrome uses fibreglass and PVC to provide high levels of durability and also achieves a solar reflectance value of more than 75% - the highest degree for indoor solar control fabrics.
Available in five colours – white, white linen, white pearl, black pearl and black – the range has BREEAMNL/EN145032-based Glare Control 3, which is the highest class for indoor blinds with indoor-to-outdoor visibility. This is achieved thanks to its special metal coating, which ensures an essential diffuse light transmission value of less than 2%. And thanks to the 3% openness factor, users can see outside.
With such credentials, it’s no surprise that the range is among the best-performing interior blinds on the market.
First to benefit from the innovative Sunscreen Panama Chrome blinds is Penta Scala Rietvelden College in Spijkenisse, the Netherlands, which has ordered 265 blinds – a total of 1,150 square metres – in black pearl for its new classrooms.
They will also incorporate the EOS®500 system, for which Hunter Douglas won an iF design award in 2012 in recognition of its modular construction, which comprises 300 interchangeable parts.
The Sunscreen Panama Chrome range is ideal for a college environment because the blinds are highly durable – up to twice as long as exterior blinds – which means less maintenance and lower operating costs, says Hunter Douglas Sales Manager Ronald Fleer.
“That was the solution that the school was looking for,” he explains. “An important requirement was that our blinds had light and heat control qualities similar to those of exterior blinds and that people would be able to see out. The new Panama Chrome material combines all these characteristics in one solution.”
Fleer added that the combination of the metal coating, the fabric’s weave and the 3% openness factor ensures that all of the blinds offer good indoor to outdoor visibility, even those in the lighter colours.
“This is what makes the material stand out in the market,” he explains. “Choosing a light interior colour usually means you have to add another high density fabric block-out to meet the visual demands. This means that there is almost no visual contact with the outside. Most lighter fabrics have a higher density, offering far less indoor to outdoor visibility.”
