On Monday 11th September the South West Committee
meet at Rockwool's offices in Pencoed, South Wales for their quarterly
meeting followed by a tour of Rockwool's facilities.
Rockwool Ltd, based near Bridgend, South Wales is the UK's leading
manufacturer of mineral wool insulation for thermal, fire and acoustic
protection. Rockwool is authentic and wholly natural, recreated
from natural processes that exist only in nature.
The natural characteristics of Rockwool mineral wool provide a
triple combination of advantages - it is energy saving which reduces
fuel bills, it is fire safe which protects buildings and it offers
acoustic improvement to reduce noise nuisance.
The parent company, Rockwool International A/S, whose headquarters
are near Copenhagen in Denmark, has 35 operating companies throughout
Europe and North America.
Carl Whitehead, Rockwool's industrial sales manager was our host
for the day along with Neil Penman, factory shift manager, who was
our guide for the afternoon's factory visit. Neil began the day
with an overview of the Rockwool process that converts diabase rock
into thermal, acoustic and fire protective insulation material for
use in domestic, commercial, industrial buildings, and industrial
processes, HVAC applications and marine and offshore applications.
Neil strongly emphasised upon Rockwool's environmental principles
and particularly the recycling of materials which helps to reduce
the environmental impact of waste and returned material. Next we
viewed the Rockwool process, first from the 'hot end' where the
rock is melted down into what looked like an industrial sided candy
floss maker through it's process cycle to the finished product which
included the packing and delivery options.
Thanks to Carl for his kind hospitality and Neil for the guided
tour, this was an excellent day and everyone went away with a wealth
of information.
|
