Issue 31/2013 - BASF will launch its first ready-to-use, high-performance polyurethane insulation board

BASF will soon launch its first ready-to-use, high-performance polyurethane insulation board

BASF has announced that it has innovated and developed a high-performance product
for the field of insulation.
The material not only has excellent thermal insulation properties, but is also extremely thin and lightweight, and can be made into ready-to-use polyurethane (PU) boards
that are easy to process.
The first prototypes of the pilot plant at the company's Lemfoerde site in Germany will be available
in the second half of 2014.

This insulation material is a new type of organic aerogel, which has high mechanical strength after being made into a plate, so it is very practical
.
Its excellent thermal insulation performance is due to specially optimized nanoscale cells – a first
of its kind in high-strength sheets.
This nanoscale microporous structure effectively restricts the movement of gas molecules within the cells, which can greatly reduce heat transfer
.
In addition, when used as the core material of vacuum insulation panels, the precise geometry of this material also gives it great advantages
over inorganic powders.
The vacuum insulation board extracts the air in the micropores to reach vacuum during the production process, which can further reduce the thermal conductivity value to less
than 5mW/m·K.

The performance of this new product is far superior to other existing insulation materials
.
When used as an insulation board, its thermal conductivity can reach an unprecedented 16mW/m·K or less, while the thermal conductivity of ordinary insulation materials is generally between
21~40mW/m·K.
This new material not only has excellent thermal insulation performance, but also can effectively save space, and its thickness can be reduced by 25%~50%
compared with traditional products.
In terms of processing, the product also has many advantages
.
It can not only adopt traditional processing methods such as sawing, cutting, drilling, and sticking during the installation of PU plates, but also will not produce any dust
.
(Lijun)