For those who were unable to attend our stand at the Designex exhibition, recently held in Melbourne, you missed some cutting edge, innovative new product releases by Shading Systems of Australia.

· These included our brand new, fully electronic smart motor, Elegine (tubular AND curtain motors) first in the world to be designed for the INTERIOR market exclusively and with a great deal of design input from Peter Scrivenor, our genius Technical director (he really should get out more!!)

· Alongside the Elegine motors on our display appeared an old name with a new distributor, Schenker Storen awnings from Switzerland. In keeping with the quality of the REFLEX product range we were researching the possibilities of expanding our exterior product offering to include folding arm awnings when Schenker approached us with the most complete AND PRACTICLE range of fabric reefing systems we’ve seen. After doing a little homework (more sleepless nights for our TD Peter Scrivenor) we decided to take this range on and are now formulating the marketing and pricing collateral for Australian release in the near future.

A surprise product which attracted major interest was a stainless steel mesh fabric blind (pic. below). Yes it is REAL stainless steel, from Germany, which we integrated into one of our standard REFLEX SUPAROLL S10S systems with the end result being a spectacular blind that caught the attention of everyone. It really was one of those things that every one had to touch to actually believe it was made of steel. The fabric rolled beautifully and had that much sought after “industrial” look and feel. Already as a result of this display, we are currently in the process of employing this fabric in a practical application, watch this space for more information.

Designex 2005 saw the launch our new Elegine motorisation system. The name will be new to every one in the industry, but it has been a long time in creation. Three years of expensive, stringent research, development and painstaking testing to be precise.
The end result being the only tubular and curtain motor system specifically designed for interior use on the market toady.

Here are some of the reasons why,

• These “smart” motors make the age old problem of incorrect supply wiring obsolete. With nothing more than direct 240 volt supply to the motors, the operation can be RF remote control or BMS control or both.
• In the cases of switched 240 volt supply control, Elegine will detect that after standard programming and operate perfectly with supply switching. No need to change motors or wiring if things aren’t quite right.
• All Elegine motors have built in 433.95RF receivers as well as digitally set upper and lower travel limits AND as an extra bonus, an intermediate position for horizon setting when required.
• All programming is done from the remote control hand piece and in the event of motor direction wires being energised simultaneously (line volts or low volts, which would normally destroy other motors) the Elegine motor will identify this as another connectivity option and respond accordingly. No problem!
• All Elegine tubular motors are IP55 rated, just in case you want to use them in wet areas.
• The Elegine motors can be controlled by the BMS control system interface with dry voltage contactors or simply place a momentary switch on the wall to match your lighting system. More than one motor on a switch – no problem with Elegine – just twist the wires together for all the motors you want and feed them into the one switch – instant group control A combination of these options is available in all Elegine tubular and curtain motors.
• Finally a motor that has been designed from the ground up with internal blinds as the main criteria, thus noise levels are extremely low.
• Elegine motors are available from Shading Systems of Australia, agents for the Oceania region.

For more information call 18001 SHADE and ask for James.

SCHENKER STOREN is recognised throughout Europe as a high quality manufacturer of exterior blinds, awnings and external louvre products.

Shading Systems is proud to become the Australian agents for this quality brand from Switzerland.

• The products we will be distributing will be three variations of the folding arm awnings, one is the Balcony awning being very “minimalistic in appearance and compact, the second is the standard or NM style which is similar to the popular style from other Italian and Austrian brands but is so well engineered that span up to 20 metres in width are possible at an affordable price, and the third style of folding arm awning is the semi cassette that has the clean and sleek appearance called for in today’s architecture.
• Two other very interesting models will be the vertical drop roller blind and a variation of this that has two pivot arms to project the fabric outwards giving clearance to opening windows behind.
• One of the most impressive products in the Schenker Storen Range is the FM51 or Winter garden awnings. This can be vertical, horizontal or on any incline at all AND can be curved or bent around a change of direction!

This high end product range will dovetail perfectly with the Reflex range which is renowned throughout the industry as the leading brand in motorised systems. The alignment of these two great brands will no doubt form the basis of a great partnership. For all our customers it means we can now offer quality external products as well as internal motorised systems, filling all our customers needs without compromising quality.

For more information call 18001 SHADE and ask for James.

New 90º corner angle bracket is now available for Suparoll S6 products.

The main feature of the new bracket is its simplicity. The older style is still applicable but the new type is easier to install and much easier on the eye. The use of machined bearings instead of moulded bearings still applies as the loads are still up there and the machined bearings require less external lubricant to operate correctly. This innovation will greatly improve performance of Suparoll products used in angled applications. S4 and S* will be available shortly.

Our new 22mm round base rail is now available. With the pressure on costs and therefore trimming quality, many of the “standard” style base rail (22mm round aluminium) suppliers have skimped on the wall thickness of the rails and made them so light in weight that they just don’t do what they are supplosed to do – add mass to help gravity bring the fabric down straight. We have developed our own rail that looks similar to all others but is 1.7 times heavier and a good deal stronger (alloy) that others available. The rail is complete with our own end caps in four colours and attachment spline. Yes it comes at a premium but quality always does.

Both these products offer you, our valued customers, more options and the ability to in turn offer your customers more choice.