The European Market for Thermal Insulation Products - Mineral Fibre - 2023

This report examines the European market for thermal insulation products and their different uses in building and in industry, as well as identifying key trends impacting the industry.

Thermal Insulation Materials Overview

Various factors affect the type and amount of thermal insulation required. These can include:

• Climate
• Durability
• Ease of installation and replacement at end of life
• Cost effectiveness
• Toxicity
• Flammability
• Environmental impact and sustainability
• Energy efficiency

Mineral Fibres

Mineral fibre, or wool, is a non-metallic, inorganic material normally derived from glass or rock. Both glass wool and stone wool can be used in similar applications, except where high temperature resistance and fire protection are required. Stone wool can withstand temperatures up to 1,177oC, whereas glass wool can only be used up to 400oC.

Mineral fibres can be manufactured into a wide variety of physical forms and shapes and to a range of densities, depending upon the intended application. The most common forms are:

• Rolls or blankets, typically for use in loft insulation
• Laminated matting, for use in heating, water pipes, ventilation and air conditioning ducts, containers, cooling and tank systems
• Rigid slabs for:
  
  • Flat and pitched mansard roofs, loft conversions, cavity walls and ceilings
  • Concrete floors 
  • External wall dry ventilated cladding systems
  • Process plant - apparatus engineering, furnace construction and plant engineering
• Fibre bonded to plasterboard for dry lining and semi-structural applications
• Shells and moulded pipe sections for process plant and domestic cooking appliances
• Sprayed, for asbestos encapsulation, or blown, for loft and wall insulation, in old or irregularly shaped buildings.

End-Use Sector Definitions

For the purpose of this study, the end-use sectors have been split into building and industrial.

Building 

This sector includes commercial and domestic building, cold storage and agricultural storage. The building sector generally takes up to 90% of volume (m3) of the insulation market. 

Domestic building is split into flooring, roofing and wall insulation. Thermal insulation for domestic pipe work and air conditioning applications are not included in the building market figures. It was found that some respondents could not separate heating and ventilation figures for domestic and commercial buildings from the usage in industrial buildings and process plant. There is therefore some overlap in the definitions used by the trade. This approach of combining both sectors into a unique pipe lagging market eliminates double counting.

Industrial

This sector consists of the following:

• Pipe lagging:  This includes the thermal lagging of industrial pipe work, ducts and plant. Where domestic pipe work has been identified this is also included, as well as insulation of district heating pipes.
• Process Plant and Machinery: This section includes all applications in process plant (except the lagging of pipe work and ducts) and in ancillary equipment. A special feature of this end-use sector is the requirement for very high temperature insulation in furnaces, ovens, etc.
• Domestic and Commercial Appliances: This sector covers refrigerators, freezers, cookers and storage and other heaters. Market figures exempt other minor uses, such as irons and commercial presses.
• Transport: Road, rail, and sea transport is considered. Applications include the production of refrigerated vehicles and boatbuilding.

Countries covered: Austria, Baltics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK