CONSTRUCTION

Manufacturers of top-tier building composites leverage our additives to deliver the highest level of performance.

Whether you are seeking improved insulation value to meet ever-tightening energy efficiency standards, or resin properties that enhance your fiber reinforced composites, aerogel and fumed silica additives will set your products apart from the competition. We proudly offer a distinctive line of construction-related additives for a variety of applications.

Thermal insulation

Building insulation. Our aerogel particles are used as high-performance insulation additives in composite insulation boards and plasters, as well as stand-alone blown-in or poured-in insulation for cavity fill applications.
Architectural daylighting. Translucent LUMIRA® aerogel for fill into polycarbonate, glass and composite glazing units virtually eliminates the concept of a “weak link” in a building’s envelope while illuminating interiors with high quality natural daylight.
Tensile roofing. LUMIRA aerogel enables an unparalleled mix of energy efficiency, natural daylighting and acoustic control in large span architectural tensile structures.

Reinforcing composites

Fumed silica delivers powerful advantages to fiber-reinforced composite developers in resin flow, fiber wetting, sag resistance and anti-settling. Our hydrophilic and hydrophobic fumed silica can improve the performance of laminating resins and gel coatings used in the manufacture of fiber reinforced composite products, including polyester and vinyl ester laminating resins and gel coatings.

BUILDING INSULATION

We provide best-in-class products that can be used in building insulation applications to improve insulation performance and enable increased energy efficiency.

We have purposefully designed specialty carbon blacks and black masterbatchproducts to improve the insulation performance of EPS foam by up to 20%. Our products absorb and re-radiate infrared thermal energy to make EPS insulation more efficient, helping users save on energy costs. We offer both carbon black and easy-to-disperse masterbatches to allow EPS producers to incorporate the carbon black into the EPS foam beads. When properly incorporated, our products deliver improved insulation performance while helping end users maintain other important quality parameters such as flame retardant performance and key mechanical properties.

Our award-winning aerogel particles are enabling the next generation innovations in energy efficient and healthy building products. As the industry leader in particulate aerogel additives, we are dedicated to bringing new innovations to the marketplace and helping our commercial partners and customers meet the growing demands for functional and energy efficient building solutions. Our aerogel product line delivers a range of benefits for building insulation applications, such as:

<strong>Energy efficiency.</strong> Traditional insulating materials rely on trapping air or blowing agents within their structure to create insulation value. The performance of these materials is limited by the thermal properties of still air. Aerogel behaves differently due to its structure. This structure allows aerogel to achieve more than twice the insulating performance of still air. The open structure also allows vapor to readily diffuse through its matrix. Incorporating aerogel into existing or new insulation materials can displace air and replace it with the superior performance of aerogel. Aerogel additives enable insulation boards, blankets, plasters, coatings and composites to achieve previously unattainable thermal performance.

<strong>Space savings.</strong> Our aerogel enables higher insulating values in less space than legacy insulation materials. Best-in-class aerogel-based building products, such as rigid boards, insulating plasters and thermal insulation coatings, can deliver up to three times greater thermal performance than peer products. When renovating with limited space, aerogel-based solutions can help achieve strict energy efficiency requirements. In new construction, architects gain superior flexibility when designing modern buildings.

<strong>Moisture management.</strong> Building breathability has come to the forefront of the construction industry in recent years. As knowledge grows around building dynamics, there is a need for innovative products that help control gas and moisture transport and prevent mold and mildew. Other high performing insulation products on the market today are vapor-closed systems. Products made with our aerogel particles are typically breathable and do not promote the growth of mold and mildew. New vapor-open aerogel-based insulation materials and systems break the trade-off between high thermal performance and moisture management.

<strong>Design flexibility.</strong> Aerogel additives provide product innovators the flexibility to achieve a broad spectrum of properties when creating new high-performance insulating products. Aerogel particles can easily be added and formulated into a variety of forms, such as slurries, dispersions, dry mixtures, coatings, plasters, non-wovens, textiles, composite boards, packs and more. Thermal insulation products incorporating our aerogel allow manufacturers to provide their customers with the highest performing insulation systems, allowing designers, architects and building owners to realise their aesthetic and energy efficiency goals.

In the past, historical preservationists and homeowners had to compromise between preserving the look of the facade and significantly improving the energy efficiency of historical buildings. Our aerogel products now deliver an insulating plaster solution that considerably reduces heating and cooling energy consumption while retaining the look of older buildings.

Plaster formulations using our aerogel provide better insulation than polystyrene board while still meeting the European fire class A specification. Aerogel-enhanced plasters have thermal conductivities of less than 30 mW/m-K (0.21 Btu-in/(hr-ft2-°F)) providing up to three times the insulating and thermal performance of standard insulating plasters. These benefits are achieved while maintaining the same application techniques and equipment used for traditional plasters.

Aerogel particles are used in granular form as insulating cavity wall infill. Aerogel particles flow easily allowing them to reach narrow spaces and flow around tight corners. Packed aerogel particles can have up to four times the thermal performance of other infill materials such as perlite, vermiculite and blown glass fibers. Aerogel-based building insulation can enhance your building’s energy efficiency.