As you can probably guess, tension is key to the functionality of tensile fabric shade canopies. Without it, shade sails sag or droop, especially in the centers, affecting the longevity of the sail. Introducing tension to a shade sail, however, isn’t quite as simple as just pulling it tight at each corner.
Cable.
Cable is an essential part of our shade sails. It runs through a pocket. Without a cable, tension applied at each attachment point is not distributed evenly in the sail, creating areas of concentrated stress around the corners. This causes the center to sag and increases the risk of tearing at the corners.
When a Cable is used, the curved edges of the sail are pulled taut, the wire rope and fabric attempt to straighten out, which pulls the center of the sail, distributing the tension across the full surface of the fabric.
TURNBUCKLES
A turnbuckle consists of two eye-bolts with opposite threads inside a center body free to spin. Due to the opposite thread directions of the two eye-bolts, rotating the body in one direction brings the bolts together, thus tightening the sail, and turning it in the other direction lets the tension out. Using turnbuckles allows freedom to adjust the tension in the sail at each corner.
HEADBOARD
It acts like a turnbuckle but it is connected/bolted to the shade fabric. Use in very large shade sails. Just like a turnbuckle, it has a rotating bolt that you can adjust to tension the cable or to loosen the cable.