A Look at Quality: The Best Retractable Awning Fabrics and Manufacturers

The fabric of an awning is its most defining visual element – the color, the movement, even how it ages.

Retractable awnings have had three major fabric categories: classic canvas, vinyl, and modern solution-dyed acrylic. Each has served a purpose, but most contemporary fabric companies focus on solution-dyed acrylic because of its impressively bright colors, light weight, and durability. Each major fabric company, now, emphasizes a slightly different characteristic of retractable awning fabrics, which opens up myriad choices for homeowners and designers.

The Original Fabric: Cotton Canvas

The original awning fabric was cotton canvas, much like the heavy canvas used for sails. In the 19th century and even well into the 20th century, cotton canvas was the cheapest, most durable fabric available for outdoor uses. Even today, many people associate the heavy snap of traditional canvas with retractable awnings.

The problem with canvas is that, as a natural fiber, it is prone to fading, rotting, and mildew. It wears badly in sun and rain. Piece-dyed canvases fade very quickly and the color is inconsistent.

The problem with natural fibers made retractable awning manufacturers turn their attention to promising manmade fibers.

The Place for Vinyls

Vinyl is one of the manmade alternatives to canvas. Vinyl is not a fiber or a woven fabric like canvas or solution-dyed acrylic. Rather, it is made in long sheets of solid material, and usually backed with a fabric like polyester.

Overall, vinyl has many of the problems of canvas, that it’s prone to mildew, rotting, and fading. Additionally, the vinyl cracks and breaks in the sun, and some vinyls have a strong chemical smell.

For most residential awnings, vinyl is not an ideal material, but it does have a good application for some styles of commercial awnings. Many businesses use awnings as backlit signs, and vinyls provide a crisp image with no crazing (deformity in the image) for the lighted letters and logos.

Best Quality, Best Technology: Solution-Dyed Acrylics

The crux of the story of retractable awning fabrics is solution-dyed acrylic. All of the major retractable awning fabrics manufacturers have their primary focus on solution-dyed acrylic.

Acrylic is a manmade fiber. The dye is included in the mixture of the fiber, so the color is actually part of the makeup of the fibers. Along with giving it the name solution-dyed, this method of dying the fabric makes acrylic fabric highly resistant to staining or fading of any kind.

Since the acrylic is manufactured as a fiber yarn, it can be woven into a traditional cloth. Woven acrylic fabrics are lightweight and breathable (which keeps the areas under them cooler and fresh). Compared to vinyls and other dyed fabrics, the color for solution-dyed acrylics is much more clear and vibrant and any patterns are identical on both sides, so it’s prettier when sitting under solution-dyed acrylic fabric retractable awnings or looking down at one from a balcony.

Finishes can be added to the solution-dyed acrylic fabric that extend its life and performance. One Italian manufacturer, Para, uses a Teflon finish to protect the fabric. Other finishes, such as Scotchguard® and Flurocarbon, can increase its mildew resistance and make it more water resistant.

Retractable Awning Fabric Companies

The attractive qualities of solution-dyed acrylic mean that all major retractable awning fabrics manufacturers have focused attention on acrylics, and each has their own spin on fabric.

There are a handful of major fabric manufacturers for retractable awnings: Austrian-based Sattler, Italian Para, and North American Glen Raven, with its primary divisions of Sunbrella® and Dickson. All four offer dozens of colors and different solids, stripes, and patterns of solution-dyed acrylic fabric.

Retractable awnings have long been incorporated into home and building designs in Europe, and because of their commonality, retractable awnings there have a bit of flair. Appropriately, both Sattler and Para focus on the effects of color and patterns. Sattler looks at psychological effects of color, using both scientific and aesthetic analysis to tie colors to emotions and memories. Para treats fabrics as artistic design, with dynamic and unusual patterns like florals and tropical colors.

Sunbrella® and Dickson have explored the usability and protectiveness of acrylic fabrics. They have looked at the efficiency of acrylics, discovering that woven acrylic fabrics are ideal for improving the atmosphere under an awning. Solution-dyed acrylic fabrics:

·        Block 90% of UV rays

·        Block 70% of solar energy (heat)

·        Block 72% of light glare

Additionally, the lightness of the acrylic fabric allows sunlight to diffuse the colors, something which improves the ambiance of retractable awning fabric.

Places to Go

Sunbrella® is one of the most common fabrics used in retractable awnings, from budget lines to high-end awnings. Sattler, Para, and Dickson are almost exclusively for high-quality retractable awnings. No matter the design or quality level of the retractable awning, it is possible to find one with the best quality solution-dyed acrylic fabric.