ROMA: 'New zipSCREEN system for curtain walls'

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade and can therefore be constructed of (relatively) lighter materials, such as glass. With glass curtain walls, narrower profiles are often used, which in turn places special demands on a (screen) sunshade. ROMA responds to this with the new zipSCREEN system F50. 

"The particularly narrow single or center guides of the F50 system are only 50 mm wide and only 81 mm deep," said ROMA Benelux director Toon van Osta. "What makes them special is that they are equipped with a unique spring system. It ensures that the fabric is always taut. With most zipper guides, the fabric is held in tension by foam puffs. These lose their resilience over time and they also often become loose during assembly. ROMA uses a unique tension spring, making the narrow guide possible. Moreover, the guide with inlet can be produced fully automatically: narrow and high, few springs per meter, low and wide, many springs per meter. The tension force to the sides may approach the weight downward." 

The zipSCREEN system F50 is available with a maximum width of 3500 mm and a maximum height of 6000 mm, sufficient to shade even larger glass surfaces. The guides of the F50 can be attached to the facade in various ways with threaded rods. The bottom rail with fall protection can also be used with this screen. 

Glass parapet

The glass parapet (fall-through protection) for French balconies (the ROMA abbreviation is ABS) is available in combination with all ROMA products, and now also for zipSCREEN.2 and PURO 2.XR-zip. With the PURO 2.XR-zip, it is also possible to combine a screen with a roller gauze screen to keep insects out when the screen is open. 

New cloth fan

ROMA is busy creating a new screen cloth range with a total of 81 cloths. This includes the new Veozip screen cloth by Serge Ferrari. "ROMA is already involved in developing this new Sergé cloth based on polyester fiber instead of fiberglass in 2018," Van Osta said. "ROMA will therefore be the first to market this new cloth." 

ROMA will stock the 81 screen fabrics from the new fabric range in large quantities to ensure even faster delivery times, even for large projects. "The ROMA delivery time for zipSCREEN.2 currently stands at about three weeks," indicates Toon van Osta. "ROMA normally always delivers within ten working days, with the possibility of delivery within five working days in case of urgency. The latter, by the way, only applies to products produced in Burgau. We aim to guarantee these delivery times in the future for the zipSCREEN.2 as well." 

Expansion

To meet the sharply growing demand for screens, but also to realize shorter delivery times, ROMA's Managing Director Roland Thoma wants to greatly expand screen production and make it the most modern production line for screens in Europe. To make that happen, ROMA is building a new 8,000 m² hall for the confection of screen fabrics. Today, the cloth confection is still located in Jettingen next to ROMA's shipping center and the production of the zipSCREEN in Burgau, ten minutes by car from each other, but ROMA no longer has any expansion possibilities at the Burgau location. Therefore, the entire screen production moves two exits or ten car minutes from Jettingen. In addition to cloth confection, a fourth painting line will also be realized there. "Cloth confection, storage, paint shop and production will together be 24,000 m² in size," says Van Osta. This mega project must be completed before the 2022 season. "A challenge, but Roland Thoma is not a fan of Elon Musk for nothing!" said Toon van Osta.