Hydrocarbon Blown Rigid Polyurethane Foam for the Boardstock Industry—A Novel Approach

The accurate estimation of the thermal performance of insulation products over their expected lifetime has been a recognized challenge for over twenty years. This is because the lifetime of such products is long (10-25 years), thermal aging is caused by the diffusion of a multitude of gases, and the insulation product is not homogeneous. Two classical approaches to accelerating diffusion controlled phenomena, namely aging at higher temperature and aging a thin slice, have limitations when applied to insulation materials like polyisocyanurate (PIR) laminate board. Raising temperature does not change the diffusion coefficients of all the different gases involved in the aging process at the same rate. In the case of pentane blown PIR board, these gases are CO2, air and the different pentane isomers used to blow the foam. Thin slicing of core foam and scaling techniques, such as those in the ASTM C 1303 -00 procedure, do not account for the fact that PIR laminate boards are denser at the surface layer than in the core foam.

Section: Experimental Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long Term Thermal Resistance of Pentane Blown Polyisocyanurate Laminate Boards

Singh¹,

Ntiru

Dedecker

2003

“…For example, in US appliance applications, where nonflammability and high thermal efficiency are required, HFCs have emerged as the predominant choice [1,2] even though HFCs are more expensive than pentanes. On the other hand, hydrocarbons and their blends are chosen to replace HCFC-141b in PIR boardstock market, where cost and the need for a liquid blowing agent system is more important [4]. However, none of the alternatives is as good as HCFC-141b with respect to cost, handling, and overall product performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stepan Company;[2][3][4] Air Products;5 Goldschmidt Chemical Corporation; 6 Rhodia, Inc.;7 Bayer Corporation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene for Improving Fire Performance of Urethane Foam

Bertelo

Caron

2005

In the United States, HCFC-141b was phased out of urethane foam applications on January 1, 2003. Zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) alternatives, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrocarbons (normal pentane, isopentane, and cyclopentane), have been introduced to replace HCFC-141b. However, none of these alternatives can match the performance of HCFC-141b in terms of handling, economics, and overall final product performance. In particular, the fire performance of hydrocarbons-based foams cannot reach the performance previously achieved with HCFC-141b. trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene is a liquid at room temperature (b.p. 48 C). It does not deplete the ozone layer1, and it has very low global warming potential (GWP) because it has very short atmospheric lifetime. We have recently reported that when trans-1,2-dichloroethylene is used in urethane foams with hydrocarbons, it could improve the fire performance of the foams, based on a small-scale fire test (Mobil 45). In this paper, we report physical properties of hydrocarbons/trans-1,2-dichloroethylene foams, such as dimensional stability and compressive strength. We have also extended our studies of the use of trans-1,2-dichloroethylene, and report on the fire performance of HFC-blown urethane foams incorporating trans-1,2-dichloroethylene2.

“…HCFC-141b used as a blowing agent in PIR foams must be phased out by the end of 2003 in Japan. Therefore, alternative blowing agents such as HFC-245fa, HFC-365mfc, pentanes and water have been proposed [1][2][3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of All Water-Blown Polyisocyanurate Foam System for Metal-Faced Continuous Sandwich Panels

Naruse¹,

Nanno²,

Kurita³

et al. 2002

Metal-faced sandwich panels have been extensively used as exterior walls in the building industry. Experience and testing have demonstrated that HCFC-141b blown polyisocyanurate (PIR) foams provide acceptable fire performance when incorporated into these types of panel systems. Nowadays, the requirement for the development of all water-blown PIR foam system is getting higher, because HCFC-141b is to be phased out and a waterblown system is environmental-friendly, safe and economical. However, in general, all water-blown PIR foam systems have some problems such as poor flowability, foam friability and poor adhesion strength to metal and paper. Moreover, the poor storage stability of polyol premix of PIR systems due to hydrolysis is a serious issue, since polyester polyol modified PIR foams are generally used to reduce combustability. As for storage stability, the effect of various polyester components and catalysts for PIR foam preparation were examined with respect to the increase of acid value and the change of reaction profile. Through these tests, it was found that the specific combination of polyester components and selected catalysts led to good storage stability of polyol premix. Furthermore, to improve foam properties, a new polyisocyanate was developed. Finally, we developed new all water-blown PIR foam systems which showed similar storage stability to current HCFC-141bsystems: high flowability, less-void appearance, good dimensional stability, good adhesion strength and excellent incombustibility. In this paper, the relationship between each component of PIR foam and various properties will be discussed.