They reduce the need for heating and cooling – and therefore, energy consumption. And the less energy used, the lower the carbon emissions.

On our website, we have a tool where you can get a rough estimate of your potential energy savings. Furthermore, we can make detailed calculations on the heat gain (G-value) and cold/heat loss (U-value) and quantify the impact that we can make on these with our metalised textiles. This service is available on request.

Visual comfort is the ability to have a view out without glare. Achieving this is a delicate balance, as using a textile with too high transparency will result in too much sunlight entering the building.

In general, an openness factor of 2-4% ensures a good view of the outside. Meanwhile, the total light transmission through the pores (the openness factor) and the yarns, should not be higher than 7%.

In practice, light transmission through the yarns plays an important role and should be as low as possible. By applying an ultra-thin layer of non-transparent aluminium to the translucent yarns, you eliminate the diffuse light through these yarns. This enables you to have a transparent textile with a great view through, without having the glare issues due to diffuse light.

The sunlight that hits a building is energy. The window partly reflects it, and some energy is absorbed and passes through the window.

The reflective layer of aluminium on metallised textiles reflects over 80% of the incoming energy before it turns into heat. Neither the screen nor the room heats up. In the summer, this creates thermal comfort and reduces the need for air-conditioning.

In wintertime, the same layer of aluminium works as a low-emissivity coating and an insulator. In other words, it prevents heat and cold transfer through the fenestration. It improves the insulation, limits the heat loss and keeps the cold outside.

Especially when used as part of a Kvadrat Shade automated blind solution, metallised textiles can optimise the thermal comfort in summer and winter by opening up the blinds and closing them when needed.

It takes a lot of energy to make pure aluminium. However, we only use a minimal amount for metallised textiles through nano-technology. When you balance the energy savings, they deliver against the energy used in their creation, the pros outweigh the cons, within the first year.

There are several. The key benefits include:

Return on investment – outdoors shading is much more costly to acquire, install and maintain.

Exterior aesthetic freedom – indoor solar shading does not affect the design of the façade.

Windproof – indoor solar shading can be used regardless of the wind conditions.

Extra insulation benefits – these are even greater with metallised textiles, as the aluminium is a low-emissivity coating that blocks heat and cold transfer. We can achieve 40% improvements in window insulation.

Unfortunately, you can't. The solution is to prevent incoming solar energy (light) being transformed into heat by absorption (short wave into longwave radiation). Aluminium reflects the incoming light through the window before it can be absorbed and turns into heat.

Vacuum metallising follows the same fundamental principles as a bathroom mirror fogging up: warm vapour condenses and bonds to a cooler surface.

In our metallising chamber, we heat pure aluminium up to 1400 C in vacuum to create aluminium vapour. The vapour rises in the chamber and condenses on the fibres on one side of the fabric.