Tropitone collaborates with suppliers to improve fabric selection system for sling seating

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 9/22/2011 10:39:58 AM

Tropitone Furniture Company has collaborated with key fabric suppliers to create a better system to guide customers through the selection of fabrics for sling seating.

Tropitone's strong presence in both the commercial and consumer market segments provides a unique perspective on the performance of sling fabrics in a wide range of applications. Tropitone combined its knowledge of fabric performance with fabric supplier specifications to create the system.

"We began this effort several months ago with the objective of providing better guidance to our customers when they are selecting fabrics for sling seating," said Victoria Dawson, manager of fashion design & marketing events for Tropitone. "The use of our sling seating can range from poolside chaises at an incredibly demanding Las Vegas resort targeted at young partiers to a dining chair at a weekend vacation home. We decided to create a better system to ensure our customers would be satisfied with their fabric choices based upon the application."

Tropitone developed the system by correlating historic field performance data, internal testing data, external testing data from a world-class testing laboratory and specifications from fabric suppliers.

"This has been a massive effort," said Richard Rivera, VP of engineering & total quality. "Although very time consuming, the easy part was gathering the data. The hard part was distilling that set of data into a simple, easy-to-understand approach that made practical and technical sense. We believe our new system is fundamentally sound, easy-to-use and does not require the buyer to study the technical details."

A benefit of this effort was the development of the new double-layer Duplex sling for the URComfort product line. Traditional single-layer slings offer a great combination of clean lines, designer fabrics and carefree maintenance. The new Duplex sling further enhances the sling design by including for the top layer an extensive assortment of color-coordinated cushion fabrics. These fabrics previously could not be used for sling applications except as the top layer of a padded sling. The use of different coordinated fabrics for the top and bottom layers greatly expands design flexibility. The double-layer design also offers added durability.

The new system is deployed and in use. Tropitone has shared its findings with its key fabric suppliers and is collaborating with them to improve current fabrics and create future fabrics. This collaboration will result in a wider assortment of fabrics designed specifically for sling seating that are both beautiful and durable. Hospitality and other commercial property designers and managers should find this new system particularly beneficial as their practical options for sling seating fabrics are significantly enhanced.