Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Belgium: The European Insulation Manufacturers Association (Eurima) has supported a European Parliament vote approving a 35% European Union (EU) energy efficiency target. The adopted proposals on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the EU Governance regulation has also strengthen Article 7 (Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes).

“With yesterday’s votes, ‘Energy Efficiency First’ now starts to become more than a slogan. When 76% of our efforts towards COP21 must come from energy efficiency, tapping into the savings resting in the buildings sector we are cost-effectively bridging the gap between reality and the COP21 objectives. In this respect, the outcomes of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, EED and EU Governance show that the Parliament is ready to send a strong signal to the Council,” said Jan te Bos, the Director General of Eurima.

Hungary: Building materials producer Masterplast has been awarded a Euro0.8m grant from the government for its foam insulation plant at Kal. The grant will be used as part of a Euro1.6m upgrade at the site, according to the MTI-Eco news agency.

US: Several of Owens Corning’s Thermafiber mineral wool insulation products and their supporting design and installation services have earned Safety Act Designation from the US Department of Homeland Security. The purpose of the act is to ensure the threat of liability doesn’t prevent companies from developing and commercialising products that could save lives in the event of an act of terrorism. It restricts liability where qualified anti-terrorism technologies, or QATTs, have been used.

“Owens Corning is the first insulation manufacturer to be listed publicly with the Department of Homeland Security as having qualified technology carrying the Safety Act Designation,” said Julian Francis, president, Insulation Business.

The designation covers a variety of Thermafiber products in perimeter fire barrier system, interior wall and floor ceiling systems, construction joint firestopping system and penetration firestopping system applications.

Canada: The governments of Quebec and Canada have awarded France’s Soprema US$6.9m towards building an insulation plant at Sherbrooke in the Estrie region of Quebec. The project has a total budget of US$34.6m and it will produce extruded polystyrene insulation panels.

The Quebec government funding, allocated under the ESSOR program, includes a US$4m loan and a non-repayable financial contribution of US$1.2m. As for the federal government, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) has granted US$1.6m to Soprema, in the form of a repayable contribution.

Headquartered in Strasbourg, France Soprema produces insulation, waterproofing, soundproofing and roofing products for the construction and civil engineering sectors. Its North American head office and research centre are located in Drummondville, in the Centre–du–Québec region. The company runs three plants in Canada at Drummondville, Quebec City and Richmond.

UK: The British Rigid Urethane Foam Manufacturers’ Association (BRUFMA) has said that the materials tested so far by BRE Group, following the Grenfell fire in June 2017, do not meet building regulations and would never be recommended or approved for use by the members of BRUFMA in a real building.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has commissioned six BS 8414 tests using a combination of materials, including the make-up of the outer cladding system. The first aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding test, carried out by BRE combined an assembly of polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation used in conjunction with an unmodified polyethylene filled ACM cladding panel. Both PIR foam and mineral wool are being tested with each cladding system.

BRUFMA described the situation as ‘worrying’ that a number of buildings have been identified with this combination, indicating a lack of compliance to existing rules and regulations. However, it has advised that all six tests should be completed satisfactorily before any analysis is drawn and remedial action is proposed by the government. It also highlighted that PIR insulation manufactured in the UK and Ireland that is recommended for use in high-rise buildings is tested with the BS 8414 fire test as part of a complete ventilated rainscreen system.

UK: Exterior cladding systems have come under scrutiny in the aftermath of a devastating fire at a tower block in west London that has killed at least 17 people. The system was retrofitted in 2016 to the 24-storey building that was originally built in the 1970s, according to Reuters. Concerns have been raised about the speed the fire spread. Suspicions have targeted the flammability of the insulation panels used in the façade and whether fireproof barriers were installed properly at the site. It is believed that wall fixings, exterior zinc panels and insulation panels were used in the cladding according to a planning document relating to the building that was published by the local government in 2012. It is unknown whether the insulation material included any fire retardant chemical additives.

“Without knowledge of the specific materials used we cannot say at this early stage if any of the conclusions above are relevant to this tragic incident, but the increasing use of combustible materials in construction needs to be addressed if further events are to be avoided,” said Jim Glockling, Technical Director at the Fire Protection Agency (FPA). He added that the FPA believes that local building regulations need to be updated to consider, “both the external envelope of the building and its resilience to fire ingress.”

Prime minister Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the incident.

Denmark: Lars Christian Lilleholt, the Minister for Energy and Climate, has stopped subsidies for domestic cavity wall insulation projects due to problems related to the scheme. The subsidies were stopped on a temporary three-month basis in March 2017 and this had now been made permanent in conjunction with the energy companies that take part in the scheme. A survey published in March 2017 reported errors in 60% of the projects carried out under the scheme.

UK: The British Rigid Urethane Foam Manufacturers' Association (BRUFMA) has called for the government to ensure that any new house building campaigns deliver energy efficient buildings and continue to increase the building standards for the sector. BRUFMA was responding to the publication of a White Paper or government report on the local market entitled ‘Fixing our broken housing market.’ The association recognised that the White Paper highlighted a need to continually review the current energy performance standards with regard to climate change targets and to domestic fuel poverty. It added that this should be extended to include the performance in flood risk areas of housing and the materials used in their construction.

‘The White Paper launches a consultation with a range of recommendations to increase numbers of homes being built in the UK. However, there are likely to be many conflicting views so I hope the government doesn’t use this as a way of kicking the problem into the long grass. However many houses are built we must ensure that all new housing is highly energy efficient in line with our climate change objectives. Just because there is a rush to build shouldn’t be an excuse to lower the quality of the thermal performance. And we certainly don’t want to have to come back and retrofit in 20 years because the houses we build today do not meet tomorrow’s requirements,” said Simon Storer, the chief executive of BRUFMA.

Australia: Businesses that suffered when the Home Insulation Program was closed are suing the federal government for more than US$72m in compensation. ACA Lawyers and McLaughlin & Riordan have launched a lawsuit on behalf of more than 100 people in the Victorian Supreme Court that alleges the government's mismanagement of the scheme resulted in business loss or forced them into bankruptcy, according to the Australian Associated Press agency.

The lawyers say that a Royal Commission set up following the closure of the Home Insulation Program failed to compensate businesses sufficiently. They allege that it only compensated companies operating before the insulation program was implemented not ones created afterwards to take advantage of it. 104 claims are believed to have been settled at a cost of US$9.7m despite thousands of businesses being affected.

The Home Insulation Program was shutdown in 2010 following the deaths of four workers.

US: The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in California has asserted that polystyrene is not the same as styrene and is not listed by the state as a substance that causes cancer. The OEHHA has added styrene to a list of a list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer for purposes of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65).

"There is sufficient scientific information to demonstrate that the intended uses of these materials are safe,” said the OEHHA. "While free or unreacted styrene may be present in such products, only styrene exposures that pose a significant cancer risk would require a warning." Styrene is used to make expanded polystyrene (EPS) but the substances have different properties. The OEHHA's listing is based on the findings of the 12th edition of the National Toxicology Program's Report on Carcinogens that assesses the potential for risks associated with styrene, primarily in work environments where levels of styrene exposure may be higher.