HAIL CANOPY – ENVIRONMENT UNDER A CANOPY
With WeatherSolve being in the hail protection industry for over 35 years, WSS has been able to stress test and ensure they built a product that is of the highest quality.
The Fabric that WeatherSolve Structures uses to built their hail canopy’s has been specially developed from hail protection fabrics that have been used for crop protection in Europe for over 50 years. To keep their orchards healthy, the growers needed reliable protection without sacrificing the sunshine needed to produce beautifully ripened fruit.
Similarly, Car Dealerships need that same sunshine. Not only does that sunshine increase serotonin levels (making customers happier) but allows for vehicles to shine making then appear even more beautiful!
Regarding making cars look better, all that polishing must be for something! Appropriately, an apple can be used to illustrate the effect. The apple in the sunshine looks better than the picture on the right of the same apple in the shade.
Example only I our own photos with and without sun.
WSS has enhanced this fabric with a slightly more open weave that retains the strength and protection from damaging hail but allows the smallest non-damaging hail (hail around 1/8th of an inch in diameter and up to ¼ inch is called graupel) to shake through the net. The fabric has also been enhanced with fire retardant properties to meet and exceed relevant Fire Codes such as CAN/ULC- S109
As side benefits, a canopy will also provide wind protection. WeatherSolve Structures canopies create a sheltering effect with a flat canopy and with perimeter side curtains on the windy sides. The canopy causes the faster wind to slide over the surface leaving a protected zone filtered to a gentle breeze underneath. More even temperatures. The fabric provides about 20% shade which is enough to take the edge off summer’s high temperatures. On cold days – particularly cold and windy days – the protection will allow the heat that is retained overnight in the asphalt to remain longer. This occurs partly from reflection and partly from wind reduction. In this way, the overall environment under the canopy will be milder. The hot days will be cooler and the cold days warmer.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For some people, that is enough information so please jump to the contact button and you’re done.
For others who wish to investigate in more detail and get familiar with the technology, please explore. WeatherSolve is proud to be the world leader in suspended fabric structures. No other company has the breadth of locations, the range of environments, or the variety of tested solutions.
This website lays out some of the many options and features as decisions you can participate in, or that we can make on your behalf.
At every point, we have scientific references, results of our in-house testing, and experts on hand to discuss details or help explore ideas. If we don’t know we’ll find the answer for you!
RELATED CASE STUDIES
Wind Protection
The operators at an energy generation facility with air-coolers were frustrated. Every time the wind blew, their generation efficiency dropped.
Wind Protection for Solar Field
A solar field supplier wished to refine their design to cut the cost of the mirror supports in a windy location. A related side benefit was that they could have the parabolic mirrors orientated to continue to generate electricity in wind storms that would otherwise require the mirrors to be rotated to the “stow” position facing into the ground.