Chesterfield Awning

"A small team of expert awning makers automate their cutting process with the Carlson Design PT-72" Plotter/Cutter machine. Specializing in traditional striped awnings, awning-style door enclosures and awning storage in South Holland, Illinois."

About Chesterfield Awning

Chesterfield Awning, with their main location in South Holland, Illinois, has been crafting custom awning solutions for businesses throughout the state of Illinois and beyond for the last 59 years. Owned and operated by Dave Ausema, he and his team can measure, quote, cut, and fabricate even faster with a Carlson Design Plotter/Cutter installed in-house and operated by their lead graphics and digital pattern designer, Matt Coglianese. Chesterfield mostly fabricates traditional-style awnings, utilizing Sunbrella and vinyl material with and without striped patterns while also providing storage solutions for seasonally hung awnings.

With a small team of sewers lead by the operations manager, Steve, most of their time is spent taking in measurements and converting those to templates, then cutting the templates out of paper, then tracing the pattern onto the desired material and finally cutting the material by hand. As you can see, there is room for improvement in efficiently preparing material for the awning frame, and that’s exactly what the Carlson Design PT-72″ offers.

Installation Details:

Model:	Pro PT
Attachments:	T-Bar Digitizer, Hot Knife Attachment
Plotter Width:	72"
Table:	28'
Blowers:	(4x) 1.5HP Radial Vacuum
Applications:	Awnings, Custom Canvas Shades, Shades
Materials Cut:	Acrylic, Canvas, Sunbrella, Vinyl

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What was unique about this install?

Chesterfield’s awning products come in a wide array of materials, some striped. Striped material poses a unique hurdle in the drawing and nesting of patterns. Due to the attention to detail in their products, the striped material must be continuous around the entire awning valance. Matt, the lead graphics designer, works closely with the operations manager to ensure correct measurements and offset. Some simple guidelines in Sketchup (their choice of patterning software) makes for an extremely simple nesting process using Carlson Design’s proprietary software, Plotmaster.

We quickly switch over to the hot-knife attachment. We start with some basic squares for calibration and familiarize ourselves with the tool.

The hot-knife attachment is calibrated by adjusting speed and pressure of the cutting head. Once dialed in, we can now cut and seal the edge all in one pass.

Once the machine is set on it’s tracks, we start with a simple cut on some red vinyl. A basic triangle awning Matt prepared prior to install.

Looking at the rest of the pieces, the team seems satisfied.

Real Results

Turning the awning fabric patterning and cutting process into a matter of minutes, rather than days, is a true benefit to Chesterfield Awning. Beautifully cut and marked patterns are now much easier to produce using the Carlson Design tools. Click through the images above to see the entire process, from install to production cutting.

Now we prepare to digitize an awning using Sketchup and Carlson Design’s plugin.

Taking some measurements before moving to Sketchup.

Once in Sketchup, creating the panels and wings for the awning is as simple and point and click.

We now prepare to cut our pattern on some striped Sunbrella.

While nesting our pattern in Carlson Design’s Plotmaster software, we account for the striped pattern and it’s repeat.

Install & The solution

Chesterfield Awning, with its central location in South Holland, Illinois, has been crafting custom awning solutions for businesses throughout Illinois and beyond for the last 59 years. Owned and operated by Dave Ausema, he and his team can measure, quote, cut, and fabricate even faster with a Carlson Design Plotter/Cutter installed in-house and operated by their lead graphics and digital pattern designer, Matt Coglianese. Chesterfield mainly fabricates traditional-style awnings, utilizing Sunbrella and vinyl material with and without striped patterns while providing storage solutions for seasonally hung awnings.

With a small team of sewers led by the operations manager, Steve, most of their time is spent taking in measurements and converting those to templates, then cutting the templates out of paper, then tracing the pattern onto the desired material and finally cutting the material by hand. As you can see, there is room for improvement in efficiently preparing material for the awning frame, and that’s exactly what the Carlson Design PT-72″ offers.