Building energy conservation is a basic national policy in my country. The State Council's "Green Building Action Plan" and the national standard GB8624-2012 "Building Materials and Products Combustion Performance Classification" mandatory standards emphasize that insulation materials must be efficient and energy-saving, and must be safe and reliable. As an important material for building energy conservation, rock wool has both thermal insulation and fire protection performance, which can not only achieve building energy conservation but also protect the safety of people's lives and property, and achieve a win-win situation in building energy conservation and fire safety. However, many people do not understand or even have some misunderstandings about rock wool exterior wall insulation systems. To this end, the author interviewed relevant experts in the rock wool industry and asked them to answer questions that everyone cares about.

Question 1: What are the advantages of rock wool in building insulation and fire protection? What issues should be paid attention to when doing heat insulation and fire protection of external walls?

Answer: The building fire is a terrible thing that no one wants to see. Rock wool itself is an inorganic material of silicate fiber and is non-combustible. Rock wool is equipped with heat insulation and is a class A fireproof material. When using rock wool fireproof insulation board, not only the thermal insulation effect is guaranteed, but also the fireproof performance meets the fireproof standard. The following points need to be done for the fire protection of external wall insulation. One is to strictly implement various fire protection regulations and strictly implement the fire protection system. Choose good insulation materials, take good fire protection measures at the initial stage of the use of insulation materials, and monitor the construction process at the intermediate stage of the use of insulation materials to prevent the possibility of various fires; after the insulation materials are made into external wall insulation systems, do Proper use and prevention of fire after good insulation system.

Question 2: If you want to use rock wool products with good thermal conductivity and fire resistance, does it mean that you must reduce the tensile strength, water absorption and durability requirements?

Answer: The high-quality rock wool produced in my country can fully meet all the requirements of tensile strength, water absorption, durability and thermal insulation performance, and it is a class A non-combustible material. In most applications, the insulation performance of rock wool is comparable to that of polystyrene board, and even exceeds the insulation performance of polystyrene board in some applications.

Question 3: What is the exterior wall insulation system? Can rock wool be applied to external thermal insulation composite systems?

Answer: The external wall external insulation system refers to the use of a certain fixing method (bonding, mechanical anchoring, spraying, pouring, etc.) to fix the thermal insulation material with a low thermal conductivity (good thermal insulation effect) to the building wall. An engineering method to increase the average thermal resistance of a wall to achieve thermal or thermal insulation.

The rock wool exterior wall insulation system has the advantages of low thermal conductivity, good breathability, and high combustion performance level. It can be applied to energy-saving insulation projects in newly built, expanded, and renovated residential buildings and public building exterior walls, including exterior wall insulation, non-transparent Fire insulation for curtain wall insulation and EPS external insulation systems. It is used in conjunction with thermal insulation materials whose combustion performance does not reach Class A to improve the fire protection and fire protection functions of the external walls of buildings. Rockwool is an excellent thermal insulation product for external thermal insulation composite systems. Not only that, because of its non-combustibility, rockwool is also a fire safety solution for buildings, and is regarded as the first choice material and solution for high-rise buildings. These are fully reflected. In the provisions of EN13500 and ETAG004 standards. The flammability of foam insulation products will cause great risk and damage to people and property, so Europe and the United States do not allow the use of this material in high-rise buildings.

Question 4: In Europe, such as Germany, does rock wool account for only a small market share in all external wall thermal insulation composite system applications?

Answer: In Germany, for high-rise buildings with a height of more than 22 meters, the market share of rock wool in the external thermal insulation composite system is 100%. In all applications of external thermal insulation composite systems, rock wool has a market share of 5.6%, but this statistical result includes the most common building in Europe: low-rise single-family houses, which is not comparable to the high-rise building structures prevailing in China. .

Question 5: How is rock wool different from slag wool?

Answer: Rock wool and slag wool are different products. The main component of slag wool is slag, which has the characteristics of high slag ball content, low melting point and low acidity coefficient. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of slag wool is high, and there will be serious heat shrinkage in case of fire.

Slag wool cannot usually be used in projects requiring fire protection. Moreover, the slag wool cannot meet the application of the external thermal insulation composite system, so it should not be applied to the external thermal insulation composite system.

Question 6: Will rock wool cause harm to human health?

Answer: Of course not. Some organizations (such as the World Health Organization) have conducted a lot of research on whether rock wool fibers are carcinogenic, and the results clearly show that rock wool fibers are not carcinogens. The results of the study are: insulated glass wool, continuous glass wool, rock wool and slag wool cannot be classified as human carcinogens (Class 3)." Carcinogenicity studies on rock wool are well known and these research reports are public. In addition, regarding health issues In other words, we are not aware of any restrictions on the application of rock wool.

It is worth mentioning that the flame retardant HBCDD used to make certain foam products reach the B1 level is a PBT substance (persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic substance). The European Chemical Agency has decided to list HBCDD earlier. Substances requiring special attention (SVHC). From production to installation and removal, mineral wool (including rock wool) can be excluded as a hazardous substance.

Question 7: Will the rock wool production process consume a lot of energy and produce a lot of emissions?

Answer: All or most of the production waste of modern factories is recyclable. After a small amount of waste is processed, the emissions will be reduced to the minimum level. One unit of rock wool saves 100% of the energy consumption in its use than its energy consumption in production. Manufacturing 1 kg of rock wool consumes about 20 MJ of energy, while manufacturing 1 kg of polystyrene board consumes at least 85 MJ. The raw materials for the production of polystyrene plates are basically fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, and the production of rock wool only requires the use of very common rocks (basalt), and its available reserves are almost unlimited.