METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING AN INSULATION PRODUCT BASED ON MINERAL WOOL

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method for manufacturing an insulating product based on organic or mineral fibers, which comprises—applying an aqueous binder composition to organic or mineral fibers, preferably mineral wool fibers; —heating the fibers bonded with the aqueous binder composition so as to evaporate the volatile phase of the aqueous binder composition and to bring about the thermal curing of the non-volatile residue, or packaging the organic or mineral fibers bonded with the aqueous binder composition for the purpose of storage and/or transport, the aqueous binder composition having a pH of between 1.0 and 6.5, preferably between 1.5 and 5.0, and comprising: a) at least one carbohydrate selected from hydrogenated sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and mixtures thereof, (b) at least one polycarboxylic acid or an anhydride of such an acid, (c) from 1 to 35% by weight, relative to the total weight of components (a), (b) and (c), of a water-soluble, amine-containing phenolic resin consisting essentially of phenol-formaldehyde condensates and phenol-formaldehyde-amine condensates.

Claims

1: A method for manufacturing an insulating product based on mineral or organic fibers, the method comprising: applying an aqueous binder composition to mineral or organic fibers; and heating the mineral or organic fibers coated with the aqueous binder composition so as to evaporate a volatile phase of the aqueous binder composition and to thermally cure a non-volatile residue, or packaging the mineral or organic fibers coated with the aqueous binder composition for storage and/or transport, wherein the aqueous binder composition has a pH of between 1.0 and 6.5 and comprises: (a) at least one carbohydrate selected from the group consisting of a hydrogenated sugar, a reducing sugar, a non-reducing sugar, and mixtures thereof; (b) at least one polycarboxylic acid or an anhydride of a polycarboxylic acid; and (c) from 1 to 35% by weight, relative to a total weight of components (a), (b), and (c), of a water-soluble, amine-functional phenolic resin consisting essentially of phenol-formaldehyde condensates and phenol-formaldehyde-amine condensates.

2: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises from 2 to 30% by weight, relative to the total weight of components (a), (b) and (c), of the water-soluble amine-functional phenolic resin.

3: The method according to claim 1, wherein the phenol-formaldehyde-amine condensates are phenol-formaldehyde-monoalkanolamine condensates.

4: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises the polycarboxylic acid and the polycarboxylic acid is a monomeric polycarboxylic acid.

5: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises the polycarboxylic acid and the polycarboxylic acid is citric acid.

6: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises at least one hydrogenated sugar and the proportion of hydrogenated sugars in the carbohydrate (component (a)) is between 25 and 100% by weight.

7: The method according to claim 6, wherein the carbohydrate (component (a)) comprises at least 30% by weight of hydrogenated sugars.

8: The method according to claim 1, wherein the hydrogenated sugar is selected from the hydrogenation products of monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and mixtures thereof.

9: The method according to claim 1, wherein the hydrogenated sugar is selected from the group consisting of maltitol, xylitol, sorbitol, hydrogenation products of starch hydrolysates, and hydrogenation products of lignocellulosic materials.

10: The method according to claim 1, wherein a weight ratio of the carbohydrate(s) (component (a)) to the polycarboxylic acid ((component (b)) is between 25/75 and 75/25.

11: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition has a pH of between 1.5 and 4.0.

12: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition further comprises between 0.5 and 10% by weight, relative to a total weight of solid materials of the aqueous binder composition, of an esterification catalyst.

13: An aqueous binder composition, having a pH of between 1.0 and 6.5 and comprising: (a) at least one carbohydrate selected from a hydrogenated sugar, a reducing sugar, a non-reducing sugar, and mixtures thereof (b) at least one polycarboxylic acid or an anhydride of such a polycarboxylic acid; and (c) from 1 to 35% by weight, relative to a total weight of the components (a), (b) and (c), of a water-soluble, amine-functional phenolic resin consisting essentially of phenol-formaldehyde condensates and phenol-formaldehyde-amine condensates.

14: An insulating product based on mineral or organic fibers, obtained by the method according to claim 1.

15: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition is applied to mineral fibers.

16: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition has a pH of between 1.7 and 3.0.

17: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises from 5 to 27% by weight, relative to the total weight of components (a), (b) and (c), of the water-soluble amine-functional phenolic resin.

18: The method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises from 7 to 20% by weight, relative to the total weight of components (a), (b) and (c), of the water-soluble amine-functional phenolic resin.

19: The method according to claim 6, wherein the carbohydrate (component (a)) comprises at least 50% by weight of hydrogenated sugars.

20: The method according to claim 12, wherein the aqueous binder composition comprises between 1 and 5% by weight, relative to the total weight of solid materials of the aqueous binder composition, of the esterification catalyst, and wherein the esterification catalyst is at least one selected from the group consisting of sodium hypophosphite and hypophosporous acid.

Description

EXAMPLE

[0063] A composition 1 is prepared, containing 30% dry matter, containing 48 parts by weight of maltitol (component (a)), 52 parts by weight of citric acid (component (b)), and 5 parts by weight of sodium hypophosphite (catalyst).

[0064] A composition 2 is prepared, containing 30% dry matter, containing 80 parts of amine-containing resin (component (c)), 20 parts of urea (cosolvent) and 3 parts of ammonium sulfate (catalyst).

[0065] Compositions 1 and 2 are mixed in variable proportions so as to obtain different weight ratios of component (c) to the sum of components (a)+(b)+(c).

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Parts of Parts of component Parts of component (a) + (c)/(a) + Test solution (c) urea component (b) (b) + (c) Test 1 according 8 2 90  8.2% to the invention Test 2 according 16 4 80 16.7% to the invention Test 3 according 24 6 70 25.5% to the invention Test 4, 40 10 50 44.4% comparative Test 5, 0 0 100   0% comparative

[0066] The solutions of tests 1-5 are used to determine the crosslinking onset temperature (TR) of the binder by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Moreover, the Young's modulus and the tensile breaking strength of woven fabrics of glass fibers bonded by the different cured binders are determined, before and after accelerated aging under humid conditions.

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis:

[0067] 0.4 g of the test solutions 1-5 are deposited using a pipette on strips of Whatman glass fiber filters (grade GF/C, reference 1822-915) of 60×12 mm, superimposed in pairs. The dynamic mechanical analysis is carried out on a DMA apparatus, model Q800 from TA Instruments, fitted with a double recessed clamp. During each curing test, a temperature ramp with the following parameters is applied: [0068] stress: 0.1% [0069] temperature gradient: 25° C. to 250° C. (4° C. per minute) [0070] frequency: 1 Hz

[0071] The crosslinking onset temperature is defined as the temperature at the maximum of the tan delta loss factor. The measurement precision is ±5° C.

Determining Young's Modulus and Tensile Strength

[0072] Woven fabrics of glass fibers are impregnated by immersion in the test solutions 1-5, diluted beforehand to 20% dry matter, so as to deposit approximately 6% binder on the fibers. The impregnated woven fabrics are cured for 120 seconds in a fan oven temperature-controlled at 215° C.

[0073] For each test, the cured woven fabrics are cut into ten rectangular strips. Half the strips are subjected to an accelerated aging protocol under humid conditions (3 days at 35° C. and 95% relative humidity).

[0074] An Instron Series 5960 tensile testing system is used, with a pulling direction at an angle of 45° relative to the warp and weft direction.

[0075] The Young's modulus is measured before aging, and the tensile breaking strength of the binder seals is measured before and after accelerated aging. The results, averaged over 5 tests, are presented in Table 2 below.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Young's Tensile Tensile TR modulus strength (N) strength (N) Test pH (° C.) (MPa) before aging after aging 1 (invention) 1.8 140 ± 5 5200 ± 315 125 ± 4 73 ± 3 2 (invention) 1.9 138 ± 5 5280 ± 250 122 ± 4 72 ± 2 3 (invention) 2.0 n.d. 5000 ± 900 113 ± 5 68 ± 2 4 (comparative) 2.1 130 ± 5 5220 ± 130  95 ± 3 63 ± 2 5 (comparative) 1.7 144 ± 5 5190 ± 190 116 ± 5 63 ± 4

[0076] It is observed that the three tests according to the invention (tests 1-3), using a mixed binder based on maltitol (component (a)), on citric acid to (component (b)) and on amine-containing phenolic resin (component (c)) in proportions such that component (c) represents approximately 8% to 25% by weight of the sum of the components (a), (b) and (c), have a better tensile breaking strength after accelerated aging than a binder based on maltitol and on citric acid alone (test 5) and than a binder containing more than 40% by weight of amine-containing phenolic resin (component (c)) (test 4).