Pipe Insulation Blog

NEW £100M PORT OF LIVERPOOL BIOMASS FACILITY TO SUPPORT EU’S LARGEST DECARBONISATION PROJECT AT DRAX POWER STATION A new £100m biomass terminal planned for the Port of Liverpool will see it handle up to three million tonnes of wood pellets a year as part of the decarbonisation of Drax power station. The wood pellets – to be shipped to Liverpool from North America – are a by-product of the commercial forestry and saw-milling industry and will provide the Selby-based power station with a new, sustainable low carbon fuel source. In transitioning from coal to sustainable biomass Drax will reduce its CO2 footprint by some 12m tonnes per annum, the equivalent to removing 10% of the cars on the UK roads. All of the wood pellets will be sent to Drax by rail from Liverpool to Selby ensuring there is no impact on the local road network. The new biomass terminal, which includes a new rail loading facility and storage capacity for 100,000 tonnes, will be built by GRAHAM Construction

K-FLEX recently took part in the 22nd International Congress on Sound and Vibration ( ICSV22.org ) held in Florence, 12th-16th July, 2015.  This conference is a world leading event in the field of sound and vibration and is an important networking opportunity for scientists and engineers working in this sector. The event was organized by the Acoustical Society of Italy (AIA) and the International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV) and was attended by some 1,200 scientists, researchers and technicians from around the world, mainly from the European Union, United States, China and Japan. K-FLEX Research and Development Engineer, Dr Diego Molina, presented his scientific paper during the T09 "Sound Insulation Materials" session, of which the Chair was Prof. Jorge P.Arenas of the IIAV and the Acoustical Society of America. Together with Materiacustica and the University of Ferrara, K-FLEX demonstrated the development of a predictive model showing the performanc

One building in Central London is using solar thermal tubes not just to generate renewable energy but also to create a remarkable and eye-catching facade. In marked contrast to more typically discrete installations of renewable energy technology, architect Nick Baker chose to celebrate the inclusion of solar collectors in his Camden development by placing them on the front of the building. The striking five-storey residential building in Delancey Street features a commercial unit on the ground floor and 14 residential flats on the upper floors.  Sustainability is woven into the fabric, as well as the façade of the building, in order to achieve a Level 3 rating from The Code for Sustainable Homes. In all, there are 925 Kingspan Solar Varisol solar thermal evacuated tube collectors which hang in banks down the front and outer walls of the building, creating a unique and beautiful frontage which sits comfortably within a designated Conservation area. The specification for

The technical insulation material industry for synthetic foams now has a central forum in the Internet: the website for “CEFEP” (European FEF/PEF Interest Group) is online. The new portal www.cefep.eu provides detailed information on current developments, product advantages and the principal fields of application for technical foams made of flexible elastomers (FEF) and polyethylene (PEF) for technical building equipment and for applications in industry. This is also the starting shot for the future PR work of the association, which was founded in 2012. The leading European manufacturers of technical insulation materials have joined forces in CEFEP to give users better guidance when selecting products and to represent the sector in important national and European bodies. The European interest group CEFEP now has a homepage of its own. This is mainly directed towards expert planners, architects, political decision-makers, dealers and installers. It offers an informative industry

The GRODAN Group is successfully delivering high-tech innovations and systems for food manufacturing. The horticultural arm of the ROCKWOOL Group is reaping the benefits of its long term focus on optimal and sustainable growing solutions that encourage customer loyalty by meeting their high level professional needs. As a good example, one of the GRODAN Group’s customers, Eric Wall Ltd , based just outside Chichester UK, has been launched as a LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) Demonstration Farm – the first such tomato glasshouse business. The GRODAN Group is successfully delivering high-tech innovations and systems for food manufacturing. As a LEAF Demonstration Farm, it joins a group of 40 other farms in the UK showcasing the very best of sustainable practices. “That is a great success story for Eric Wall Ltd, as well as for us, and highlights what the GRODAN Group and sustainable horticulture is all about,” explains Hub Janssen, Managing Director of the GRODAN Group.

It’s an exciting time for our North American operation. With the new factory in Mississippi, opened just barely a year ago, ROXUL Inc. is certainly making its presence known in the US market with particular focus on increasing the business in the south. The steep increase in sales of ROCKWOOL products in the US continues. On more and more construction sites – be it commercial buildings or private homes – the easily recognisable red ROXUL packaging can be spotted. The general pick-up in construction activity is being helped by numerous state initiatives moving towards more stringent building codes with increased insulation values. Governments are mandating increased efficiency in their own public buildings, not only to combat climate change but also to save on operational costs. “It’s really all our major segments - Residential, Commercial - which are moving,” explains President of ROXUL Inc. Trent Ogilvie. “The only market where we see a slight slowdown is for technical insu

The new Cardiff HQ of insurance giants Admiral has achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, thanks in part to the outstanding performance provided by Kooltherm FM Pipe Insulation from Kingspan Industrial Insulation Ltd. Situated in the heart of the Welsh capital, Tŷ Admiral has capacity for 3,000 staff. ARUP acted as M&E consultants on the project which was delivered by Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd. The purpose built building, developed by Stoford Developments, includes a number of ‘chill out’ areas. To help meet the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, over 15,000 lm of Kingspan’s Kooltherm FM Pipe Insulation was specified. Kooltherm FM Pipe Insulation is suitable for pipework and equipment operating in a temperature range of between -50°C to +110°C and offers industry leading performance, with thermal conductivities as low as 0.025 W/m•K. Dave Hodsoll, Managing Director of installers Linear Insulation Ltd. commented: “By installing Kingspan Kooltherm FM Pipe Insulation we were able to a

The Roskilde Festival , the largest north European culture and music event, is not just a big party – it is also a living laboratory for Rockwool to test their new products. For the third year in a row, the ROCKWOOL Group is attending the Festival to present some products that lie outside their core traditional business areas. Insulated shelters, a solar powered cooler and absorbing urinals – these are just some of the interesting products the Group is testing at the Roskilde Festival (27 June to 4 July 2015) Last year, the Festival guests tested the prototype of a so-called “shelter” – a small cabin lined with stone wool, intended for refugees around the world as an alternative to the traditional tents. The intention was to create a solution with stone wool that protects refugees against fire, moisture and extreme cold and heat. We received solid feedback from the Festival guests who chose to stay in a shelter last year and this has helped the ROCKWOOL Group to improve the s