The benefits of metallised window blind fabrics

8th Jan 2017

What are metallised window blind fabrics? 

They are woven blind fabrics which have a layer of aluminium foil bonded to the outward facing side by a high-tech vacuum process, typically used in roller blinds but also in vertical and panel blinds.

What are the benefits?

The obvious benefit is an increase in reflectivity of heat and light when compared with conventional blind fabrics.  This reduces load on building cooling systems and makes life more comfortable for the building users.

There is another very important benefit which is not quite so obvious... the metallic layer gives a consistent light transmittance and reflectance values across the entire colour range.  With non-metallised blind fabrics, the light colours always have a high reflectance values and the dark colours have low reflectance.  Whilst it is good to have high reflectance, light colours also tend to have high transmittance values because the light and heat energy is scattered in all directions by the yarns. 

For an office building, visual transmittance values above 10% can cause glare problems for computer users, even on elevations which do not get direct sun.  The BREEAM guide for non-domestic properties calls for blinds with a visual light tranmittance of less than 10% to achieve a credit in section HEA01.

However, dark blind fabrics can make an interior look gloomy, and may not suit your colour scheme.  So use metallised blind fabrics such as decor Verve and decor Zenith to give you the best of both worlds, you can choose a light colour for your blinds and still effectively manage the glare and heat for a comfortable working environment.