Does your awning protect itself, too?

Sunshades, roller shutters, screens, and patio covers all serve one clear purpose: to protect people and buildings from the sun, rain, wind, and other weather conditions. Yet, when these products are developed, too little attention is paid to protecting the product itself.

Alural Group, a division of the Reynaers Group, specializes in the surface treatment of aluminum. With six coating lines—including vertical and horizontal powder coating, anodizing, sublimation, and various pretreatment techniques—Alural processes approximately 48,000 m² of aluminum every day. Based on this experience, we have found that the right combination of pretreatment and powder quality is crucial to a product’s appearance and lifespan.

This is particularly relevant to the sun protection industry. Screens, roller shutters, and patio covers are almost always installed outdoors. They are constantly exposed to UV radiation, rain, temperature fluctuations, pollution, and moisture. Furthermore, these structures contain numerous joints, cut edges, cover caps, and hard-to-reach areas where moisture and dirt can accumulate.

Nevertheless, aluminum parts are still often finished to meet only the minimum requirements. But is minimal protection still sufficient for products that customers expect to remain attractive for decades?

SeaSide as a standard pretreatment

Proper protection begins before powder coating. With SeaSide pretreatment, the aluminum is pickled more intensively. This removes contaminants and surface irregularities more thoroughly, creating a cleaner and more robust base for the coating. Despite its name, SeaSide is not intended exclusively for coastal applications. Sunshades and patio covers in rural, urban, or industrial environments are also exposed to moisture, pollution, and corrosive conditions.

For products used permanently outdoors, SeaSide should therefore no longer be considered an optional extra, but rather the standard pretreatment. For the most demanding projects, Pre-Ox—the new name for Pre-Ano—can provide an additional protective barrier.

Class 2 for long-lasting color retention

In addition to corrosion, UV weathering is also a key concern. Qualicoat Class 2 powders offer greater resistance to discoloration, loss of gloss, and prolonged exposure to sunlight than traditional Class 1 powders. The difference may be barely noticeable after one year, but it becomes apparent after ten, twenty, or thirty years. Long-term color and gloss stability is especially essential for dark colors, which are very popular today for screens and patio covers.

For the sun protection industry, the logical standard is therefore clear: SeaSide for better corrosion resistance and Qualicoat Class 2 for more durable color and appearance retention. Anyone who develops products to protect people and buildings from the weather must also ensure that those products themselves are as resistant as possible to that same weather.