Excited to share a bunch of product improvements and updates.
First: new Lanai Hem Bar End Caps!
We designed the Lanai Hem Bar to be the heaviest hem bar in the industry. Even a small, 15ft section weighs 45lbs! It is excellent at resisting inwards deflection on windy patios. In the field, we found that extreme winds could cause enough pressure to pull out our fabric attachment screws that bind the corner reinforcement panel to the hem bar.
To solve this, and continuously make our system even stronger, we’ve redesign the lanai end cap to use a keder/spline pocket system for binding the reinforcement to the to hem bar. This eliminates a weak point in the system and makes the strongest system even stronger 🙂
While we’re at it, we’ve added stainless steel pins to the inside of the PET track guides, to strengthen up another stressed point.
Finally, we’ve finished prototyping these out of Carbon Fiber! It raises the strength to absurd levels. Once we have sufficient supply chain commitments on that material, we’ll make that upgrade available on the online configurator.
Second: Improved Motor Cooling!
No one likes a hot motor! There’s nothing worse than waiting for a motor to cool down if it overheats during an installation. So… we’ve added cooling air vents to provide cool air to the motor tube and that you can shoot compressed air into for a speedier cool down period during installation!
This was one of the more random suggestions from our AWESOME dealers and we’re excited to see how it performs in the field. For now it’s rolled out just on Alpha Standard Tube crowns. If it works effectively, we’ll roll it out to the full suite of crown parts.
Third: Somfy Motor Lock
We keep our motor tubes super quiet by eliminating ALL screws in the roller tube. No Squeeks!
The downside is that we’ve relied on a snap fit for the Somfy Drive part to connect with the stem on the Somfy Maestria 353 Motors we use. We’ve had a handful of reports of this snap coming disconnecting, due to manufacturing tolerances between our drive and the Somfy stem. This was exacerbated in hotter climates where the expansion between the materials was different. To solve, we’ve added a locking part to the end of the motor assembly, preventing the drive from coming disconnected if the snap fit ever fails.
Fourth: Housing Lock Fixture
Does this list keep going…? Yup!
On larger or high-access installations we always recommend adding a safety screw to the housing cover to provide a physical back-up to the snap fit. This process is pretty straightforward, but pre-drilling the square stud and housing exactly can be hassle.
Now each unit comes with two stainless steel screws and a fixture to help make pre-drilling the housing a snap! Check out the dedicated page here to watch our installation guide!
Fifth: Concealed Center Support
Lastly, We’ve got a completely concealed center support for Jumbo Housing installations over 25ft!
The center support attaches to the utility slots inside the Jumbo Housing and can be installed on any existing installation. It is COMPLETELY concealed when the housing cover snaps shut, getting rid of any unsightly bulges or brackets on the housing. You can even use multiple of them on a single installation to reduce the fabric wear in any given location
We have multiple installations using this product already and are looking for a handful more to test and provide feedback before we roll it out to the entire dealer network. Reach out if you have a project you have in mind!
