Drop and sliding arm awnings are ideal where you do not have enough room above your window for a folding arm awning, where you have a small window or where you want to have greater control over shading on your windows.

With drop arm awnings the front profile lowers by gravity and is fixed to side arms that fall from a pivot point. The projection of the awning is therefore the same as the distance from the roller to the pivot point.

This is the simplest form of awning that is ideally suited to shorter drop windows. The arms normally fall 900 to the horizontal although they will drop through to 1350 to give shading against low angle sun.

To achieve a long projection or for clearance under the arms, as would be required over a patio door, a sliding arm awning is needed. In this blind the pivot point moves up the slide as the blind drops. A spring mechanism or gas piston device in the slides draws the arm up, tensions the fabric and provides resistance to wind buffeting.

There is an extensive range of fabrics available for type of blind from plains to stripes and patterns. Many fabrics have special coatings to make them resistant to fading, water and staining.

These blinds are typically operated by a winding handle linked to a gearbox fitted at one end of the blind or by an electric motor