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For comfort and coziness in the house, it is necessary to insulate the walls, floor, ceiling and make the insulation of the pipeline, as the area of the room allows. Nowadays there is huge selection heaters, which are not only thermal insulation, but also sound insulation. They can be used both outside and inside the premises, but for the safety of human health the best way put insulation on the outside. To do this, it is better to install Izovol, a basalt insulation tile. If such thermal insulation is used from the inside for walls, then after that it must be plastered over the reinforcing mesh. You can also use glass wool in rolls for this.
Compared to thermal insulation for walls, floor insulation will provide more savings and heat. In a house or sauna, floor insulation on wooden blocks can be made of foil or glass wool in a roll. Because these two types are more moisture resistant and with them better thermal insulation.
To pick up the best insulation, you should always look at the manufacturer, and at his reputation. Several manufacturers have proven themselves best in this area. Here are some of them.
Glass wool Izover (Isover), easy to use, reliable and practical. This is a heater, the price of which fully corresponds to the quality.
Knauf produces its products in the form of plates, this is a heater that is most often used when installing a ventilated facade for a house. It can also be used under floor screed.
Rockwool insulation is produced in several modifications. Namely, facade and universal plates, as well as foil insulation, reviews say that the latter is ideal for high humidity.
You can also buy glass wool in rolls, but it is best to use specialized material.
In this article: the history of the discovery of polystyrene; production technologies; scopes of expanded polystyrene; application in construction, GOSTs; properties and characteristics; environmental friendliness, durability and fire safety - is this insulation so safe; what does the term "self-extinguishing polystyrene foam" really mean; how to choose polystyrene foam
The cost of heating our homes during the cold season is very significant, and the ever-increasing cost of energy carriers increases these costs year by year. But did you know that in cold weather, heat literally disappears from your home, and heat losses are not just great - they are colossal! Today, most of the buildings in Russia, not protected by insulating materials, lose about 600 gigacalories of heat from each square meter, while it takes only 40 gigacalories per square meter of housing in Germany or the USA. It turns out that homeowners actually pay for heating the street, and not their homes at all ... The problem of heat loss can be solved by insulating the walls of the building with outside polystyrene foam plates - but is everything so simple with this heat insulator?
History of Styrofoam
It all started in 1839, when the German pharmacist Eduard Simon, experimenting with styrax (Liquidambar orientalis resin), accidentally obtained styrene. Having experimented a little with his discovery, the pharmacist found that the oily substance he received compacted itself, turning into a kind of jelly. Simon did not see a practical goal in the discovery of styrene - he called the jelly-like styrene styrene oxide and stopped further research.
In 1845, the chemists Blith and von Hoffmann became interested in styrene - an Englishman and a German conducted their own research, establishing that this substance becomes jelly-like without oxygen. The chemists named the gel-like styrene they obtained as metastyrene. 21 years later, the French chemist Marceline Berthelot gave the exact name for the process of compacting styrene - polymerization.
Hermann Staudinger, 1935
In the 20s of the last century, the German chemist Hermann Staudinger made a landmark discovery - heating styrene causes a chain reaction, during which long chains of macromolecules are formed. It was Staudinger's discovery that led to the production of polymers and plastics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1953.
The first synthesis of styrene was carried out by the researchers of the American company The Dow Chemical Company, the commercial production of polystyrene was one of the first launched by BASF - in 1930, its engineers developed a technology for the production of polymerized styrene. In 1949, the company received a patent for the production of polystyrene balls foamed with pentane - the very idea of \u200b\u200bthis invention belongs to the chemical engineer Fritz Stäsny. Based on this patent, in 1951 BASF starts industrial production heat insulator under the brand name "Styropor", produced to this day.
The raw material for the production of all types of polystyrene insulation is granulated polystyrene, a foaming agent is used to form the cells. There are several stages in the technological process of obtaining expanded polystyrene:
- Polystyrene granules are poured into the pre-expander hopper, where they are inflated and become spherical. To obtain a heat insulator of lower density, the foaming operation is repeated several times, each time reaching all bigger size balls in order to reduce the actual weight of expanded polystyrene;
- each foaming operation is accompanied by placing the foamed granules in a special hopper, where the inflated polystyrene beads are from 12 to 24 hours. During this period, the pressure inside them stabilizes, and during the production by the method of suspension polymerization, they are also dried;
- upon completion of a given number of foaming operations and having endured the aging period, the polystyrene balls are placed in a molding unit, where a polystyrene foam block is formed under the action of hot steam. Clamped in a narrow mold, expanded under the influence of steam, the foam granules stick together with each other, retaining their shape after cooling and removal from the mold;
- at the last stage, polystyrene blocks, often of impressive size, are cut to size. But first, the block from the molding unit is placed in intermediate storage, where it is kept for about 24 hours. The fact is that under the influence of steam, the polystyrene foam block gains excess moisture, and it will not work in any way to perform even cutting in the wet state of polystyrene foam, because. cracks cannot be avoided. After drying, the styrofoam block is cut vertically or horizontally with a machine saw.
There are two main methods for the production of expanded polystyrene - suspension polymerization and polarization in bulk. Suspension polymerization technology is based on the inability of water to dissolve vinyl polymers. At the foaming stage, styrene granules are poured into reactor-autoclaves with a volume of up to 50 m 3 filled with demineralized water with a polymerization initiator and an emulsion stabilizer dissolved in it. Polymerization takes place under constant pressure, with a uniform rise in temperature from the initial 40 to the maximum 130 ° C - the whole process takes about 14 hours. The foamed polymer is removed from the reactor together with the aqueous suspension, separated from it in a centrifuge, then washed with water and passes through the drying stage. The main advantages of this technology are constant mixing of polymer granules inside the reactor during polymerization, efficient distribution and removal of heat, which results in a significant shelf life of the foamed polymer.
The bulk polymerization technology is carried out differently - there is no water, the polymerization process is continuous and takes place at higher temperatures. In a series of agitators-reactors connected in series with each other, at a temperature from initial 80 to final 220 ° C, polystyrene granules foam. Polymerization is considered to have taken place and completed if from 80 to 90% of the original styrene is melted. When creating a vacuum in the last column-type reactor, unreacted styrene is eliminated, then flame retardants, dyes, stabilizers and other additives are introduced into the melt, as a result of which the polymer is granulated. The unreacted and recovered styrene is used in the next backfill. It is extremely difficult to bring the process of polymerization of raw materials to obtain more than 90% of foamed polystyrene using this technology, because the reaction rate is quite high, and there is no possibility of heat removal here.
The production of foamed polystyrene by the suspension polymerization method is more common in Russia and the CIS, in the countries of the West and America, mass polymerization technology prevails, which makes it possible to obtain a heat insulator with higher characteristics in terms of density, flexibility, clarity of boundaries and color, not to mention a smaller percentage of waste.
The technology for producing extruded (extrusive) expanded polystyrene is generally similar to the polymerization technology. The difference lies in forcing the melt with foaming agents introduced into its composition through a press extruder, resulting in a heat insulator with cells up to 0.2 mm in diameter. It is the small size of the cells that provides extruded polystyrene foam with high operational properties and popularity in the construction industry.
Areas of use
The combination of strength and heat-insulating properties, ease of processing and processing, low cost - thanks to these characteristics, expanded polystyrene is widely used in various areas of our life. Most often, this material is used for: packaging of various goods and equipment; isothermal food packaging; production of disposable tableware; energy absorbers in the automotive industry; rescue boats; volumetric outdoor advertising, etc.
The absence of the threat of dusting - the main positive difference between polystyrene foam and mineral wool, allows you to use this material for thermal insulation of refrigeration equipment in the food industry.
Expanded polystyrene is used for thermal insulation of the roadway, preventing the base from freezing. For this purpose, high-density polystyrene grades are used - from 35 kg / m 3 and above. This material is also used for thermal insulation of the railway track, effectively preventing the rails from warping and sinking on unstable soils.
One of the first to use polystyrene for building insulation was the American Hoot Heddock. According to him, the idea of \u200b\u200binsulating houses came about by accident - Huth ordered a cup of hot coffee in a cafe and suddenly noticed that the hot liquid in a disposable polystyrene cup did not burn his fingers at all. Having conducted an experiment in 1984 - having built a house in Alaska and insulated it with foam plastic - he was convinced of the effectiveness of a polystyrene heat insulator.
According to GOST 15588-86, it is permissible to use expanded polystyrene as an insulating intermediate layer building structures. In the EU countries, expanded polystyrene has been successfully used in facade insulation for more than 40 years - expanded polystyrene plates are glued to the main structural material, be it concrete or brick, from the outer (outer) side, they are covered with a layer of plaster on top.
As noted by European architects, the use of expanded polystyrene in facade insulation reduces energy costs for heating three times.
Plates and blocks made of extruded polystyrene foam are used as a fixed formwork and a simultaneous heat insulator. The technology used is as follows: polystyrene foam plates are installed at a given distance from each other, interconnected by a special system of screeds, reinforcement reinforcement is placed in the gap between the plates and concrete is poured. A variety of ready-made polystyrene blocks allows you to build facades of complex architecture. A protective coating must be applied to the walls assembled from blocks of extruded polystyrene foam and filled with concrete - from the outside it can be facing brick or cement-sand plaster, from the inside two layers of drywall with docking "in a run" or a layer of plaster. An important condition for the formwork made of expanded polystyrene: the density of this material in the formwork blocks must be at least 35 kg / m 3.
Glue for expanded polystyrene should not contain in its composition organic solvents that destroy polystyrene. It is most safe to use cement-based adhesives packed in 25 kg kraft bags and mixed with water - the inorganic components of such mixtures will not have any negative effect on polystyrene. Important point: it is necessary to achieve the largest contact area of the expanded polystyrene plate with the insulated surface (ideally - 100% of the contact area) in order to exclude air sinuses that act as cold bridges and accumulate condensate.
Thermal conductivity
The high thermal insulation properties of expanded polystyrene are explained by its structure, formed by many balls soldered together, in turn consisting of many cells with air enclosed in them. And since the air inside the cells is not able to move, it is he who acts as a heat insulator - a motionless air environment has excellent insulating properties. At its core, expanded polystyrene consists of air - 98% air and only 2% of the original polystyrene.
The thermal conductivity coefficient of this material is lower than that of any other heat insulator, incl. mineral wool, and is in the range of 0.028-0.034 W / m K. The thermal conductivity of expanded polystyrene increases with an increase in its density, for example, for extruded polystyrene foam with a density of 45 kg / m 3, the thermal conductivity coefficient is 0.030 W / m·K. Operating temperatures at which expanded polystyrene retains its properties - from - 50 to + 75 ° C.
Water absorption and vapor permeability
If we compare extruded polystyrene foam with foam plastic made from the same styrene, but using a slightly different technology, then the vapor permeability of the foam is zero, and the extruded polystyrene foam has a vapor permeability of 0.019-0.015 Mg / (m h Pa). The question arises: how is this possible, because the structure of any foamed polystyrene material cannot pass steam? The reason for the vapor permeability of extruded polystyrene foam, which is denser compared to foam, is that steam penetrates into the balls and their constituent cells on its sides, cut during molding, while the molding of foam products is performed without cutting. With water absorption, the situation is the opposite: polystyrene is able to absorb up to 4% of water when immersed or in contact with it, and extruded polystyrene foam - only 0.4%, which is explained by its greater density.
Closed cell structure of extruded polystyrene foam
Strength
In terms of strength, the undisputed leader is extruded polystyrene foam - its static bending strength is 0.4 - 1.0 kgf / m 2, while polystyrene is 0.07-0.20 kgf / m 2. The bonds between the molecules of extruded polystyrene foam are many times stronger than in the structure of the foam. Therefore, the production and use of the latter is increasingly declining - polystyrene is being replaced by a more durable and modern heat insulator, which is polystyrene foam obtained by forcing through a press extruder.
Interaction with chemical and organic products
Expanded polystyrene is not affected by: mortars based on gypsum, cement, anhydrite or lime; bituminous resins, caustic soda, soap and salt solutions, mineral fertilizers, ground water and emulsions used in asphalt paving. Damage, destroy the structure and completely dissolve polystyrene foam in some cases: drying oils, some types of varnishes, organic solvents (turpentine, acetone, etc.), alcohol-containing compounds and petroleum products.
In addition, the ultraviolet rays of the sun have a destructive effect on the open surfaces of expanded polystyrene - the surface regularly irradiated by them loses elasticity and strength, followed by the destruction of the structure of expanded polystyrene by atmospheric phenomena.
Sound conductivity
The use of expanded polystyrene for soundproofing is only partially effective - with sufficient thickness, this material is excellent for protection against impact sound, but is not able to deal with airborne noise, the sound waves of which propagate through the air. The inability of expanded polystyrene to extinguish airborne noise is associated with the complete insulation of its constituent cells and the significant rigidity of the external surfaces.
Biological stability
It is impossible for mold to live on the surfaces of polystyrene foam boards - these are the results of laboratory tests conducted in the USA in 2004 by order of American manufacturers of polystyrene foam.
Characteristics for fire safety, environmental friendliness and durability of expanded polystyrene
Manufacturers of this thermal insulation material they call it exceptionally environmentally friendly, non-flammable and retaining its performance properties for many years. Outwardly, it looks like this - the exclusion of freon from the technological process does not harm the ozone layer, the introduction of flame retardants makes polystyrene foam non-combustible, and laboratory tests characterize durability with dozens of freeze and thaw cycles. However, a closer examination of polystyrene foam shows a slightly different picture ...
Air oxidation of styrene-based materials cannot be completely avoided, and foam plastics have a higher oxidation rate than extruded polystyrene foam - larger balls and less strong bonds in the structure of foam plastics. The higher the temperature, the more speed oxidation, while burning expanded polystyrene is not required, the release of toluene, benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, acetophenone and methyl alcohol occurs in the process of air oxidation at a room temperature of more than +30 ° C. In addition, freshly laid polystyrene foam emits styrene, not polymerized during the production process. I repeat - 100% polymerization of all feedstock put into the reactor is impossible.
All types of polystyrene are combustible - in terms of the official classification system building materials, those that lose their original volume when heated in air are combustible. The self-extinguishing claims of polystyrene manufacturers of any type do not fully reflect the fire characteristics of polystyrene, i.e. information is deliberately misrepresented.
Most manufacturers of this heat insulator claim that when heated, polystyrene foam emits no more toxic substances than wood. If during the combustion of a tree chemical warfare agents are released, then this statement is true - after all, when melted under the influence of heat above 80 ° C, polystyrene foam releases a large amount of smoke and soot into the air, containing incl. small amounts of hydrobromide (hydrogen bromide), hydrocyanide (hydrocyanic acid) and carbonyl dichloride (phosgene).
So what gives styrofoam manufacturers the ability to claim that their product is less flammable than wood? According to Russian GOST 30244-94, such a statement would be simply impossible, because this standard classifies materials based on expanded polystyrene as the most combustible, to groups G3 and G4. But in Europe there is a different method for assessing flammability, or rather, there are three of them - biological, chemical and complex. According to the biological methodology for assessing toxicity, the most dangerous material is precisely wood materials- quickly burn out with the release of a large amount of CO2 at spontaneous combustion temperatures. But the assessment of toxicity by the biological method is given only by a few final parameters, which are incomparable, for example, when comparing the toxicity of combustion products of wood and polystyrene. The same is true with the calculation of toxicity by the chemical method ...
The real picture is given only by a complex method, unconditionally applied in Europe to all polymeric materials.
However, in Russia, suppliers of European polystyrene foam and local manufacturers show buyers expert opinions only on biological and chemical methods, actively making these data widely publicized.
Another classic move that allegedly demonstrates the incombustibility of polystyrene: the plate is suspended in the air, the flame of the burner is directed at it - so the part of the plate where the open flame enters burns out, but the fire does not spread further. What conclusion can be given to polystyrene after watching this video? And no - if the same polystyrene plate is laid on a rigid non-combustible surface, then the melt drops formed during the combustion of the material will spread high temperature and an open flame over the entire area of the stove, which will burn completely!
The smoke generation coefficient for polystyrene foam that does not contain flame retardants is 1,048 m 2 / kg, but for self-extinguishing polystyrene foam with flame retardants introduced into its composition, this figure is higher - 1,219 m 2 / kg! For comparison: the smoke emission coefficient of rubber is 850 m 2 /kg, and wood, with which manufacturers constantly compare polystyrene products, is only 23 m 2 /kg. Since for a non-specialist in matters of fire safety, the given values \u200b\u200bof smoke generation do not explain anything, I will give such data - if the smoke content in the room is more than 500 m 2 / kg, then absolutely nothing will be visible at arm's length.
The consequences of burning polystyrene are known from the 2009 tragedy that occurred in Perm, in the Lame Horse nightclub - most of those killed in this fire suffocated by the combustion products of the insulation, which the internal partitions were openly sheathed. It should be noted that the owners of the club saved on insulation by using not extruded polystyrene foam, but packaging foam of lower density, which burns excellently and is not prone to self-extinguishing.
Styrofoam durability
When buying a really high-quality heat-insulating material, observing all installation requirements, fully covering the outer area of polystyrene foam with a layer of high-quality plaster or decorative panels, its service life will be over 30 years. But in reality, these conditions are never 100% met - unprofessional installers, attempts by customers to reduce costs, errors in calculations and hope "at random".
A classic miscalculation is the bet on the thickness of expanded polystyrene - they say, if you install plates of 30 cm thickness, then the heat-insulating effect will increase significantly with a simultaneous increase in the service life of the material. In fact, with increasing thickness, the service life of polystyrene thermal insulation will be reduced, because. significant temperature differences will cause deformation and shrinkage, forming cracks and a decrease in the area of direct contact of the expanded polystyrene plates with the insulated surface, forming extensive air sinuses. In the EU countries, the thickness of expanded polystyrene used for facade insulation cannot exceed 3.5 cm - this requirement, in addition to issues of durability of thermal insulation, is associated with fire safety, because the thinner the layer of expanded polystyrene, the smaller the amount of combustion products will be released to them during a fire.
In order to reduce the risk of fire, manufacturers introduce flame retardants into the composition of polystyrene, as a rule, this is hexabromocyclododexane. In Russia, expanded polystyrene with flame retardants in its composition is marked with the letter "C", meaning "self-extinguishing".
By and large, self-extinguishing polystyrene foam burns no worse than materials that do not contain flame retardant.
The question arises - so what does the letter "C" mean? And she means that this styrofoam will not self-ignite when the temperature rises, nothing more. According to the degree of flammability, self-extinguishing expanded polystyrene is assigned class G2, but it is worth considering that over the course of its operation, the flame retardant will gradually lose its properties, i.e. in a few years, the actual flammability class of such expanded polystyrene will not be higher than G3-G4.
Styrofoam selection criteria
Cheapness, high thermal insulation qualities have made materials based on polystyrene extremely popular in the construction market. And the increase in demand has led to the emergence of many enterprises vying with each other offering products of their own production, declaring its exceptional quality.
Be careful when choosing the brand of expanded polystyrene - as a facade insulation, it would be correct to choose PSB-S (self-extinguishing expanded polystyrene) not lower than the 40th brand. At the same time, it is worth considering the nuance - the manufacturer, within the framework of the specifications developed by him, produces PSB-S-40 with a density in the range from 28 to 40 kg / m 3, and not at all 40 kg / m 3, as an ignorant buyer suggests, focusing on the number in the brand . It is quite natural that it is more profitable for a manufacturer to produce brand 40 with the lowest density, because in this way he earns more, spending less on raw materials. It makes no sense to use expanded polystyrene grades below the 25th in construction - the density of such expanded polystyrene will actually correspond to packing foam, unsuitable for facade insulation due to the rapid loss of performance.
It would be nice to find out what technological process for producing expanded polystyrene is used at the enterprise of this manufacturer. If an enterprise produces expanded polystyrene with a density of more than 35 kg / m 3, then this should be an extrusion method, because. without compression during the production process, the highest density of polystyrene will not exceed 17 kg/m 3 .
You can find out the quality of polystyrene by breaking it - a low-density material (used only for packaging) will break between the balls, their shape at the break point will be round, the size will be different. The fracture of high-quality extruded polystyrene foam will show the polyhedra that form it the same size, the break line will partially pass through them.
The right decision would be to purchase expanded polystyrene from well-known European manufacturers BASF, Nova Chemicals, Styrochem, Polimeri Europa or domestic TechnoNIKOL, Penoplex. Production capacity these manufacturers of expanded polystyrene are sufficient to produce a truly high-quality product.
At the end
In the presence of negative characteristics in terms of combustibility and combustion products, expanded polystyrene is one of the best and, at the same time, inexpensive heat insulators. By enclosing a polystyrene slab between two layers of cement plaster, you can get high-quality thermal insulation of buildings and premises - it makes no sense to deny this fact. In Europe, about 80% of public and residential buildings are insulated along the facade with expanded polystyrene.
Expanded polystyrene as a building insulation has not yet passed the full test of time - no more than 40 years have passed since the first application.
The information widely disseminated by manufacturers about the same quality over 80 years of operation is based on laboratory tests that can be influenced - say, by providing a special batch of samples for analysis.
When insulating facades with expanded polystyrene, it is extremely important to completely protect the outer surface of this heat insulator with a sufficient layer of plaster on a cement binder - the slightest area of \u200b\u200bcontact of expanded polystyrene with the atmosphere and solar ultraviolet will lead to its rapid destruction.
Is it worth it to insulate the interior with this material - it’s not worth it, despite all the assurances of the manufacturers. They will give guarantees, but what good will that do in the event of a fire...
Abdyuzhanov Rustam, rmnt.ru
