Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: Grenzebach says that it has completed the construction of the Hütten wood fibre insulation plant in Bavaria's Neustadt an der Waldnaab District for Ziegler Group subsidiary Naturheld. The plant took a total of 12 months to build, and will run on 100% renewable energy. Naturheld will use waste wood from Ziegler Group's wood processing operations in the region. Grenzebach says that it developed a novel wood blending system for implementation at the plant. The supplier said that the plant has a wood fibre production capacity of 6t/hr, and is capable of expanding to 10t/hr. The plant gives Ziegler Group the capacity to produce 1.5Mm²/yr of its wood fibre insulation product.

Managing director Stefan Ziegler said "Building the wood fiber insulation board plant within such an extremely short period was possible only thanks to the close cooperation with a renowned automation partner of international standing like Grenzebach. As a solution provider, Grenzebach supplied both the necessary product and technical know-how and expertise and was able to make the required capacities available at all times."

Austria: Austrotherm has invested Euro20m on an upgrade to its extruded polystyrene (XPS) production capacity at its Purbach insulation plant. The project added a production hall with new extrusion technology supplied by Germany-based KraussMaffei Group. The expansion has also created 20 new jobs at the site. A further upgrade to the plant will be built in 2023 when a photovoltaic system will be installed on the roof of the hall.

Germany: Netherlands-based FALK Bouwsystems has agreed to purchase Salzgitter Bauelemente from Salzgitter Group for an undisclosed price. Steel construction element manufacturer Salzgitter Bauelemente will continue to do business as a independent subsidiary with its existing managing director Kai Bohmbach. Under the terms of the acquisition, Salzgitter Bauelemente’s plant in Lower Saxony will continue to be supplied with raw materials from Salzgitter Flachstahl. However, its building and storage area will remain the property of Salzgitter Flachstahl and are leased to the purchaser for a minimum rental period of 10 years, with an option to extend.

FALK Group said, “With the acquisition of Salzgitter Bauelemente, we are pursuing the goal of entering the German market independently. To this end, we will build on the existing know-how and intend to expand the production volume at this location. The investment measures planned by management are also to be continued.”

Salzgitter Bauelemente produces steel construction elements, including sandwich panels made with polyurethane and mineral wool cores. Sandwich panel producer FALK Bouwsystems produces around 5Mm²/yr, about twice that of Salzgitter Bauelemente.

Germany: Knauf Insulation has launched new overwraps on its global insulation product portfolio. The new packaging reduces ink consumption by 70% through its design, featuring a white or off-white base hue and no more than one additional colour. The wraps are designed to maximise ease and efficiency and reduce cost of recycling. This is in line with Knauf Insulation's commitment to recycle over 25% of packaging by 2025. Within the same timeframe, it also aims to reduce its packaging's virgin plastic consumption by 25% and collect over 35% of delivery pallets for repair and reuse or recycling.

Ireland: Kingspan’s sales rose by 33% year-on-year to Euro6.25bn in the first nine months of 2022. It said that insulated panel sales grew by 29% and insulation board sales grew by 48%. Panel sales were reported as holding up ‘reasonably well’ in the Americas, Germany and the UK but as being weaker elsewhere in Europe. Board sales increases were led by a rise in price.

Germany: Chemicals producer BASF has partnered with RAMPF Eco Solutions, Poland-based Remondis Electrorecycling and engineering company KraussMaffei to develop depolymerisation techniques to produce polyol from waste polyurethane (PU) fridge insulation, as an alternative to natural hydrocarbons. The recovered polyol could then be used as a raw material in PU insulation production.

BASF said "This innovative process is particularly challenging because it has to be very robust in order to reliably convert post-consumer waste with high levels of foreign substances into a high-quality recycled polyol.”

Waste fridge insulation's only current use is as an alternative fuel by the energy sector.

Germany: Heraklith has announced that its wood wool production plant in Simbach will be comprehensively modernised in 2023, alongside a significant increase in capacity. The focus of the planned investment is the moulding of the press line. Here, dimensionally accurate, single-layer lightweight panels and top layers for wood-wool multi-layer panels are created from wood-wool fibres and a mineral binding agent. The conversion work is currently planned for the second half of 2023. However, the exact schedule depends on the delivery situation of some key components.

“The modernisation of the system will ensure the high quality of our Heraklith products in the long term and also further increase occupational safety for our colleagues,” explained Rico Neumann, Director for Sales, Building Construction and Marketing in Germany. “The investment is a positive signal for the long-term prospects of the Simbach site and the future of our most important wood wool plant.”

Markus Uhl, Sales Manager Germany Heraklith Contract Business and Timber Construction, added “Our customers will benefit both from the additional production capacities and from the reliability of the new systems. We assume that our investment will have a significant impact on the rapid availability of our extremely popular wood wool products for underground car park ceilings and timber construction.”

Germany: Ireland-based Kingspan has concluded a deal to acquire mineral wool-based sandwich panels producer Calostat from speciality chemicals company Evonik. Calostat's boards have Cradle to Cradle Gold certification for sustainability and employ a unique moisture management concept.

Kingspan said that the acquisition complements its portfolio and enhances its ability to offer the right type of insulation for every application.

France: Ireland-based Kingspan has closed its acquisition of Ondura Group. The group consists of light roofing producer Onduline, membranes producer CB and waterproofing systems producer Alwitra. It operates plants in four European countries, as well as Brazil, Malaysia, Turkey and the US. Law firm Clifford Chance, a long-term partner of Kingspan, advised the insulation group through the deal.

On 27 September 2022, Kingspan acquired waterproofing membranes producer Derbigum in neighbouring Belgium. Derbigum has recycled 30,000t of bitumen in its operations to date.

Germany: A cyber attack compromised Knauf's computer systems on 29 June 2022, leading the producer to opt for a complete services shutdown. The group said that its IT unit successfully isolated the breach and has launched an investigation.

Knauf Insulation thanked its customers for their understanding and trust. It said "We are currently working heavily to mitigate the impact to our customers and partners – as well as to plan a safe recovery. However, we apologise for any inconvenience or delays in our delivery processes that may occur."