Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: Knauf Insulation has appointed Neil Hargreaves as its new managing director for the Northern Europe region. He will be responsible for strengthening the company’s position in the mineral wool insulation industry. Hargreaves was previously the finance director of the company. He succeeds John Sinfield, who is leaving to pursue another opportunity outside the company.

Italy: Gamma Meccanica has acquired mineral wool pipe section production technology from Germany’s MPN Maschinenbau. As part of the purchase, Mark Desomer has joined the Italian mineral wool production line manufacturer. No value for the transaction has been disclosed.

“We are delighted to cooperate as one team in the future. It is an exciting new chapter to continue our journey to develop state of the art mineral wool pipe section production units based on our mutual know-how,” said Andrea Magnani Managing Director at Gamma Meccanica .

Bahrain: Turkey’s ThermoBor has met with government officials to discuss setting up a regional office. The hub will serve Bahrain and the wider Gulf market, according to the Bahrain News Agency.

Slovenia: A fire has caused damage to Knauf Insulation’s Škofja Loka mineral wool plant. The fire started in a warehouse before spreading on 2 February 2019 before it was extinguished, according to the Slovenian Press Agency. No injuries were reported during the incident. The cause of the blaze is being investigated.

Japan: Research by the Japan Sustainable Building Consortium suggests that under floor insulation could reduce negative health effects such as high blood pressure. The study found that when the temperatures near the floor of a person's home were lower, the proportion of people seeing a doctor regularly for conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes increased, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Mainichi newspaper.

The study looked at 4131 people in 2307 homes identified for insulation retrofitting. The average age of the participants was about 57 years with an even gender split. Comparisons were drawn between residents' health before and after insulation upgrades were completed. The researchers found that in homes where the temperature near the floor was below 15°C, the people were on average 1.51 times more likely to have high blood pressure and 1.64 times more likely to have diabetes. The study also noted adverse health effects when bedrooms and living rooms were unevenly heated.