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The Wolseley SBC has become a Demonstration Project for Constructing Excellence

Rockwool

The Rockwool process resembles the natural action of the volcano: stone wool is made by melting rock, limestone and recycling briquettes with other raw materials at 1500oC in a coke-heated cupola furnace. The liquid stone mass is spun into fibres. Binder and impregnating oil are added to make the products stable and water-repellent. The stone wool is then heated to about 200oC in order to cure the binder and stabilize the material for final processing. Environmental equipment – filters, pre-heaters, after-burners, and other cleaning and collection systems – make the ‘tamed volcano’ an environmentally responsible process.

Rockwool insulation is one of the rare industrial products saving more energy than is required for its manufacture. The most energy-intensive part of the Rockwool production process is the melting process. At temperatures above 1500°C diabase rock and recycling materials are turned into lava and then spun as fibres.Energy efficiency has been top priority for many years. It is also the key to reducing other environmental impacts of production, such as CO2, NOx and SO2 emissions. In newly acquired factories Rockwool know-how has improved energy efficiency by 50% per produced unit, while at the same time enhancing product quality, environmental performance and delivery precision.Since 2001 energy efficiency improvements of 13% have been obtained at Group level.

Rockwool insulation is one of the major energy savers. A typical 250 mm Rockwool loft insulation product – manufactured and installed in Denmark and used over 50 years - will save 128 times more primary energy than was used for its production, transport and disposal. The energy balance becomes positive only 5 months after installation.This, however, is a conservative example. For a product that insulates hot pipes, the energy payback can be less than 24 hours - the return on invested energy is more than 10,000-fold.A number of Rockwool websites enable building owners to calculate both how much energy costs and CO2 you can save if you insulate properly.