‘A great looking Roman blind in under 20 minutes with unskilled labour.’ That’s the claim of SPP Industries with its new Romatech ‘no sew’ Roman Blind system.

“Romatech comes complete with a full recipe system for ensuring that the bundle of raised panels is hidden from the sun and so does show any fade marks on the fabric. The recipe provides the positioning for each baton for any drop required. These sequential positions can then be creased easily with the Romaspeed 1000 creasing and assembly table. This table features fabric grippers that hold the cut panel perfectly square while a handwheel moves the fabric through the creasing process. An LCD unit displays the measurements to the operator to ensure accuracy. The entire creasing process can take as little as two minutes. This creasing process eliminates the time consuming process of measuring and marking the pocket positions as well as drawing of lines and manual creasing. The Romaspeed 1000 will process Romans of up to 3 metres in width and over 4 metres in drop.

“Once the creasing is handled quickly and easily the next problem for blindmakers to overcome is the issue of snagging the fabric as the baton is slid onto the fabric. Even if the fabric coating is scratched, a nearly completed product can be ruined. SPP overcame this through the use of a patented applicator that lets the baton glide effortlessly into place and eliminates the need to de-bur the aluminium profiles.

“The batons are supplied with a clear plastic spline that locks the fabric inside the profile. Plastic end caps are especially designed to push on and lock on, an important child safety feature. The polycarbonate lift rings simply twist to attach to the back of the baton. They literally lock into whatever position that is needed.

“A no sew Headrail has just been added to the system. The rail provides a clean and neat appearance by covering the support brackets. The headrail is also very versatile, allowing the blind to be operated by Cordlock or chain mechanisms and it will also accept DC electric motors.

“The Base rail is similarly novel. It allows the blind maker to enclose it in a traditional pocket or expose it for a more modern look. This gives the option for the base rail to be used both for roller blinds as well as romans. Baserails are available in four colours and in anodized.

“The manufacturer feedback on Romatech is extremely positive. Most manufacturers were allowing 1 to 1.5 man/woman hours for a single layer roman so the massive time saving is helping productivity and profits. Equally, the fact that a roman can be made with very modest skills has made Romatech popular in workrooms. The Romaspeed machine provides the platform for both quick easy creasing and assembly. It also makes for a very low mistake rate.

“The applicators also assist assembly staff to virtually eliminate fabric damage during the fabricating process.

“Romatech is often used on sunscreens for a single layer product but it can also be used in custom romans which are usually have two fabric layers. In this custom Roman, the batons are attached to the lining and the face fabric is then attached and side hemmed with a high quality double sided tape. This process eliminates sewing, and stitch holes and provides a clean modern look. This also takes Romatech fabricators into the higher end of the Roman market.

“Romatech allows blind makers to manufacture Romans with no more difficulty and with no more skills than those needed for making a roller blind. Sometimes this allows blindmakers to produce in-house a product they used to outsource.” Says Cynthia de Waal, who manages SPP Europe. Cynthia is based in The Netherlands and she is keen to build and support a customer base in the UK and Ireland.

“We can also provide a DVD which shows every step of assembly using the Romatech system”

SPP invites enquires from companies interested in becoming a UK and/or Irish distributor for the Romatech System.

• SSP T: +31 (0) 318 50 55 66