INSULATION

Abstract

A mineral wool insulating product which comprises a layer, notably a continuous layer, of mixed mineral wool fibres, the mixed mineral wool fibres comprising a binder, first mineral wool fibres and second mineral wool fibres, the first mineral wool fibres and the second mineral wool fibres have a difference of softening point.

Claims

1.-15. (canceled)

16. A method of providing a fire resistant layer to a support surface of a building element comprising: introducing a combination of first mineral wool fibres having a first composition and second mineral fibres having a second composition into an inlet of a spraying apparatus, the first mineral wool fibres and the second mineral wool fibres having a difference of softening point which is at least 150° C.; and projecting simultaneously the first mineral wool fibres, the second mineral wool fibres, water and a binder from a spraying nozzle of the spraying apparatus towards the support surface to provide a sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres on the support surface, the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres comprising (in % by weight based on the total weight of the layer): the binder; at least 50% wt of the first mineral wool fibres; and at least 5% wt of the second mineral wool fibres.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first mineral wool fibres and the second mineral wool fibres having a difference of softening point which is at least 250° C.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first mineral wool fibres comprise glass wool fibres and the second mineral wool fibres are selected from the group consisting of rock wool fibres, slag wool, ceramic fibres and combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises applying a primer bonding layer on the support surface before projecting the layer of mixed mineral wool fibres.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres comprises between 3 and 8% wt of binder with respect to the total weight of the layer.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres provides an additional fire resistance to a building element of at least 20 minutes, in accordance to at least one of EN 1363-1, EN 1365 and EN 13381 to the building element.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres has a fire reaction classification of at least B, in accordance with EN 13501-1.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres has a thickness in the range 30 mm to 210 mm.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres has a density in the range 50 kg/m.sup.3 to 100 kg/m.sup.3.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the support surface is selected from a ceiling of a crawl space, a wall of a crawl space, a ceiling of a cellar, a wall of a cellar, a ceiling a car park, a wall of a car park, a ceiling of a building, a wall of a building, a ceiling of a domestic house, a wall of a domestic house, a metal beam of a building, a metal column of a building, a vertical load-bearing metal beam, and a horizontal load-bearing metal beam.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres provides a fire-resistant layer to a support surface selected from wood, metal, gypsum, plaster and concrete.

27. A method of providing a fire resistant layer to a support surface of a building element, the method comprising: providing a package comprising a combination of loose glass wool fibres and loose stone wool fibres; introducing the content of the package into an inlet of a spraying apparatus; applying a primer bonding layer on the support surface; and subsequently projecting simultaneously the combination of loose glass wool fibres and loose stone wool fibres, water and a binder from a spraying nozzle of the spraying apparatus towards the support surface to provide a sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres on the support surface, the sprayed layer of mixed mineral wool fibres comprising (in % by weight based on the total weight of the layer): the binder; at least 50% wt of the glass wool fibres; and at least 5% wt of the stone wool fibres.

28. The method of claim 27, in which the package comprises at least 60% wt of loose glass wool fibres and at least 10% of loose stone wool fibres.

29. The method of claim 28, in which the package comprises at least 20% wt of loose stone wool fibres.

30. The method of claim 29, in which the package comprises loose glass wool fibres in the range of 60% wt to 80% wt and loose rock wool fibres in the range 20% wt to 40% wt.

31. The method of claim 27, in which the remaining weight of the content of the package is made up of at least one component selected from a dry binder, an anti-dust agent and an anti-static agent.

32. A sprayed mineral wool insulating product provided on a support surface of a building element, the layer comprising (in % by weight with respect of the total weight of the layer): a binder; at least 50% wt of first mineral wool fibres having a first composition; at least 5% wt of second mineral wool fibres having a second composition; in which the first mineral wool fibres and the second mineral wool fibres have a difference of softening point which is at least 150° C., preferably at least 250° C.

33. The sprayed mineral wool insulating product of claim 32, wherein the sprayed mineral wool insulating product is obtained by the method of claim 16.

34. The sprayed mineral wool insulating product of claim 31, wherein the first mineral wool fibres and the second mineral wool fibres have a difference of softening point which is at least 250° C.

Description

[0074] An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing of which:

[0075] FIG. 1 is a picture of a first sprayed insulating product; and

[0076] FIG. 2 is a picture of a second sprayed insulating product;

the product in each case having been subjected to fire test conditions and subsequently allowed to cool to room temperature.

[0077] A support surface consisting of a plaster board 10 is firstly prepared by spraying a bonding primer on the support surface so that the quantity of bonding primer is about 120 g/m.sup.2.

[0078] A first sample 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 after testing comprises a first sprayed layer of rock mineral wool fibres, in contact with the bonding primer and a second sprayed layer of glass mineral wool fibres. Each sprayed layer is prepared by mixing mineral wool fibres free of binder and free of silicon with an aqueous binder solution comprising 6% by weight of Tris(1chloro-2propyl)phosphate into a mixing apparatus so as to provide a mixed mineral wool fibres comprising about 94.5% wt of mineral wool fibres and a binder content of the mixture being about 5.5% wt.

[0079] A second sample 2 illustrated in FIG. 1 after testing is prepared by mixing glass wool fibres and rock wool fibres which are both free of binder and free of silicon, with an aqueous binder solution comprising 6% by weight of Tris(1chloro-2propyl)phosphate into a mixing apparatus so as to provide a mixed mineral wool fibres comprising about 94.5% wt of mineral wool fibres and a binder content of the mixture being about 5.5% wt. The mineral wool fibres comprise about 60% wt of glass wool fibres and about 40% wt of rock wool fibres.

[0080] Holding the spraying nozzle at a distance of about 1.5 m from the plaster board 10 at a projecting angle of about 90°, an operator sprays, in a single and continuous step, each mixture so as to form a sprayed insulating product 10, 20. The sprayed insulating product of sample 1 and sample 2 have a thickness of about 200 mm and an average density of about 100 kg/m.sup.3. In sample 1, the sprayed insulating layer consists of two layers having a thickness of about 100 mm.

[0081] Each sample 1, 2 is placed in a vertical position in an oven configured to simulate fire conditions with rising temperature and a maximum temperature of about 900° C. Each test is scheduled to last 30 minutes.

[0082] As seen in FIG. 1, the exposed glass sprayed insulating product 10 of the first sample 1 is greatly damaged. Due to the melting of fibres from the sample 1, the test was reduced to 15 minutes. The average thickness of the sprayed insulating product has decreased from about 200 mm to about 110 mm, and with local thickness having further decreased to about 70 mm. However, the sprayed layer of rock wool fibres is still present and may provide a fire resistance layer to the support structure.

[0083] As seen in FIG. 2, the sprayed insulating product 20 has an average thickness of about 190 mm, the decrease being mainly due to the shrinkage of the sprayed insulating product when subjected to fire conditions. A protective, refractory or refractory-like layer 200 has been formed at the exposed surface of the sprayed insulating product 20. During the fire test this layer had the appearance of a high viscosity magma layer. The unexposed sprayed insulating product is substantially intact and still has the same fire resistance as prior to the test. Contrary to the result achieved, it would have been supposed that the glass wool fibres would have melted and caused disintegration of the entire product.