Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Latvia: Valmieras Stikla Škiedra has completed the installation of a new E-glass melting furnace at its Valmiera glass fibre plant in Valmiera municipality. The company says that the furnace will reach full-capacity production in October 2021, ahead of schedule. Installing the furnace was one of the company’s 2021 strategic development goals, with the aim of strengthening its position among regional glass fibre products suppliers.

It said “The switch to investment and growth is now the logical step. We have already started further investment projects in order to meet the market requirements in 2022.”

Slovakia: US-based Johns Manville has commissioning of a 3t/hr glass fibre recycling unit at its Trnava engineered product plant. The company says that the facility will recycle waste glass fibres from continuous filament glass fibre recycling, reducing landfill waste by 10,000t/yr. The total cost of the installation is around Euro10m.

Europe/Asia environment, health and safety manager Elena Hrivikova said, “The primary goal of this investment is to achieve a tangible positive environmental impact by drastically reducing the landfilling of glass fibre waste. This project is part of our response to the European Commission’s Zero Waste programme and our overall target for sustainable management of the planet’s natural resources.”

Johns Manville’s Engineering Products division manufactures synthetic and glass fiber nonwoven products for construction such as insulation and gypsum board facers.