Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Ireland/UK: Kingspan has launched a range of reduced-CO₂ insulation panels called QuadCore LEC. The producer says that a 100mm-thick QuadCore AWP panel has 40% lower embodied CO₂ than an EN15804-A2 standard insulation panel of the same thickness.

Kingspan’s head of innovation Mike Stenson said “As a business we are committed to developing high performing, energy efficient building envelope solutions that help minimise the carbon footprint of buildings over the whole life cycle.” He added “QuadCore is already one of the highest performing insulation technologies in terms of thermal efficiency (underpinned by a 25-year thermal warranty), which could enable higher energy and carbon savings through the operational life of the building. This is the first step on our journey to reducing the embodied carbon of our products, and we anticipate some major milestones by 2030 to drive that down even further.”

Ireland: Kingspan says that it expects to record a profit of Euro415m in the first half of 2022, up by 26% year-on-year from Euro329m in the first half of 2021. The company noted that its global backlog of insulated panels orders fell by 2% year-on-year in volume on 31 May 2022, having previously been up by 19% year-on-year on 31 March 2022. It said that order volumes nonetheless remained above 2019 levels.

US: The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) and Allergy Standards Limited (ASL) have certified Knauf Insulation’s Fiberglass Acoustic Panel glass wool insulation panel as Asthma and Allergy Friendly. The certification attests the product’s ability to limit pollutant and allergen exposure in the indoor environment.

Knauf Insulation’s senior vice president of customer experience, innovation, and sales Nathan Walker said “This Asthma and Allergy Friendly certification is evidence of Knauf’s commitment to providing high quality products that can improve indoor air quality and help create healthier home environments.”

Ireland: Kingspan’s consolidated sales were Euro4.72bn in the first nine months of 2021, up by 22% year-on-year. Its insulated panel sales increased by 47% and its insulation boards sales increased by 51% over the same period. In the third quarter of 2021, the company’s sales rose by 50%, its insulated panels sales rose by 53% and its insulation boards sales rose by 78%.

The group said “Our backlog is strong, though it is reducing week-on-week as sales activity outpaces new order placement. Underlying panels order intake volume is down by 10% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021. 2021 so far has been unusual and characterised by order placement earlier in the year than is typical, as customers sought to get ahead of on-going inflation and availability pressures. It is likely what we are experiencing now is a fallow period in order placement following that. Raw material prices have been somewhat stable in more recent weeks, albeit at record high levels and following a period of unparalleled increases. There are no signs yet of any meaningful raw materials deflation, although should that come the impact would be negative.” It added that its activity pipeline is ‘generally encouraging,’ saying “2021 has still to play out fully, with the seasonally important fourth quarter remaining and, accordingly, we expect to deliver a full year trading profit in the region of Euro750m, significantly ahead of the Euro508.2m recorded in 2020.”

Germany: BASF is developing a pilot project to make insulation panels from plastics waste as part of its ChemCycling project. The company is making ethylene and propylene from the waste to use as raw material for further chemical manufacturing. Other projects the company is testing using waste plastics with include mozzarella packaging and refrigerator components.

“With our ChemCycling project, we are using plastic waste as a resource. In this way, we create value for the environment, society and the economy. We have joined forces with partners throughout the value chain to establish a working circular model,” said Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the board of executive directors and chief technology officer of BASF.

BASF feeds oil derived from plastic waste by an oiling process into the Production Verbund process. BASF gets this feedstock for the pilot products from Recenso in Germany. As an alternative, syngas made from plastic waste can also be used. The first batch of this oil was fed into the steam cracker at BASF’s site in Ludwigshafen in October 2018. The steam cracker is the starting point for Verbund production. It breaks down or ‘cracks’ this raw material at temperatures of around 850°C. The primary outputs of the process are ethylene and propylene. Under the mass balance approach, the share of recycled raw material can be mathematically allocated to the final certified product. Each customer can select the allocated percentage of recycled material.

BASF is working with its customers and partners, which range from waste management companies to technology providers and packaging producers, to build a circular value chain. Its next step is to make the first products from the ChemCycling project commercially available. However, technological and regulatory conditions need to be met on a regional basis before the project is market-ready.

Belgium: Recticel is promoting its Du.Panel X polyurethane panel product for the agricultural sector. It offers a lambda value of 0.020W/mK for panel thicknesses of 40 – 120mm and fire resistance with Euroclass B-s2,d0. The product is intended for using in livestock buildings and stables. It joins other agricultural products including Powerline, Cronus and Eurothane.

Belgium: Huntsman Polyurethanes has launched its DaltoPIR XHFR product for composite panels. The polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation product was introduced at a panels and profile conference in Greece.

The product uses DaltoPIR insulation technology to offer a different viscosity build up in rising foam. The company says that this enables more stable and more consistent processing, which in turn can help panel producers achieve better panel planarity and quicker line speed. The resulting foam has very low friability, which Huntsman says contributes to the long-term properties of the panels.

US: Kingspan has launched its QuadCore insulation panel products in North America at the AIA Conference on Architecture in New York. The insulated metal panel products use a hybrid insulation core with a closed microcell structure. Initially, Kingspan will offer QuadCore in its KS Shadowline, KS Micro-Rib and Optimo panels, and QuadCore will eventually be available in all Kingspan insulated metal panels.

Brazil: Kingspan has acquired a 51% stake of Isoeste Construtivos Isotérmicos (Isoeste). Isoeste, an insulated panel manufacturer, operates from four production sites with approximately 630 employees. No amount for the transaction has been disclosed.

"We are delighted to create this partnership with the founders of Isoeste, the number one player in Brazil's insulated panels market. Together with our recent investments in Colombia and Mexico, this acquisition firmly places Kingspan in a market leading position across Latin America, with a strong platform for further expansion in the region," said Gene Murtagh, Kingspan’s chief executive officer (CEO).

US: Kingspan Insulation has inaugurated the expansion of its Winchester plant in Virginia. An investment of US$25m was used to build an extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation panel production line. The new line will double the plant’s production capacity by manufacturing GreenGuard XPS panels. The company has also announced spending US$1.1m on buying an additional 7.3 acres of land adjacent to the plant’s location.