Rockwool
Our everyday material for steam lines, boilers, vessels, reactors, ESP and ducting.
- Rockwool LRB mattress
- Rockwool slab
- Rockwool pipe section
- LRB or slab with aluminium foil
- Pipe section with aluminium foil
- Loose rockwool
Hot insulation and high temperature insulation for process plants
Keep the heat in the line where you paid for it, and keep your people's hands off a 200 degree pipe.
What hot insulation work involves
People usually ask us for a rate per metre. We'd rather ask what's running through the pipe. High temperature insulation is sized against the operating temperature, and two pipes of the same diameter can end up with very different systems once you know one carries condensate at 90 degrees and the other carries superheated steam. So the line list comes first, then the thickness that keeps the outer surface safe to brush against and the heat loss at a number your plant can live with, and only after that do we talk about which wool and which cladding will last where that line actually runs.
Get it wrong and nothing dramatic happens on day one, which is the problem. Poor steam pipe insulation quietly burns fuel twice, once to raise the steam and again to replace whatever the line leaked into the air. Hot metal burns people. And wool that's gone soggy under a split jacket is doing maybe a fraction of its job, while still looking fine from the walkway.
Areas of application
- Steam, condensate and thermic fluid pipelines
- Boilers, economisers and boiler house headers
- ESP casings and hot gas ducting
- Storage tanks and process vessels
- Reactors and jacketed equipment
- Clean room utilities
- Spray dryers
- Kilns, preheaters and furnaces
- Heat exchangers, valves and flanges
High temperature insulation material, chosen by temperature
Here's the rough version of the chat our estimators have on pretty much every enquiry. The real upper limit depends on the grade and the brand, so we check the datasheet against your duty before anything is fixed.
| Material | Typical upper range | Where we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre glass wool | Up to about 450 °C | Hot water, condensate and low pressure steam lines |
| Rockwool (LRB, slab, pipe section) | Up to about 750 °C | Steam lines, boilers, vessels, reactors, ESP and ducting |
| Ceramic fibre | Up to 1260 °C | Furnaces, kilns, flue ducts, spray dryers and expansion joints |
Products used for hot insulation
Fibre glass wool
Good value on hot water, condensate and low pressure steam.
- Glass wool roll
- Glass wool slab
- Glass wool pipe section
Ceramic fibre
High heat insulation for the really hot stuff, like furnaces, kilns, flue ducts and spray dryers.
- Ceramic fibre blanket
- Ceramic fibre board
- Ceramic fibre rope
- Ceramic fibre paper
- Bulk ceramic fibre
Cladding
The metal jacket that keeps weather and knocks off the wool.
- Aluminium sheet
- GI sheet
- Stainless steel sheet
Ancillary items
Bolts, screws, mesh and wire, the bits nobody notices until they're missing.
- SDS bolts
- Self tapping screws
- Chicken wire mesh
- GI wire
Boiler, tank and steam pipe insulation done properly
Boiler insulation and tank insulation look easy on a drawing. Then you get on site and start counting manholes, nozzles, flanges and valve bodies, and that's where most of the heat walks out and most of the rainwater walks in. We build removable boxes for valves and flanges so your maintenance team can open them up and close them again without ripping half the system off. Cladding laps point downhill. Joints get sealant and bands, not just a couple of screws and hope.
For high temperature pipe insulation out on the racks, honestly, the jacket matters about as much as the wool under it. For industrial pipe insulation we'd normally go with aluminium. GI makes sense down low where forklifts and spanners hit things, and stainless is worth the money where acids or daily washdown would chew through anything else. We'd rather settle that in the quote than argue about it once the sheet has already been delivered.
Specification before price. Density, thickness and finish, then a rate.
How we work, the same four steps on a single line or a plant-wide shutdown.
Site visit and measurement
We walk the lines ourselves, note sizes, temperatures, fittings and access, and flag what can only be done in a shutdown.
Specification and quote
You get the material, density, thickness and cladding for each line in writing, along with the rate and the dates.
Supply and installation
Wool, sheet and fixings come out of our own stock and our crew fits them, with night shifts lined up if it's shutdown work.
Handover and support
We measure it jointly with your engineer, hand over photos of the finished lines and give you the warranty in writing.
Why plants across Gujarat give us the repeat order.
- We hold our own stock, so a short delivery on site doesn't stall your job for a week.
- Thickness gets worked out for your temperature before we quote you a rupee.
- Supply and fitting from one company, so there's nobody else to blame if a layer fails.
- We've planned shutdown and turnaround work down to the hour, nights included.
- Valve and flange boxes come off and go back on, so maintenance doesn't wreck the job.
- Every crew we send in works under ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 systems.
Hot insulation questions, answered.
Still unsure? Send us the duty and a few photos and we will tell you what we would fit.
What is the best high temperature insulation material?
Honestly, it depends on the heat. Rockwool covers most steam and process lines up to about 750 °C, glass wool is fine lower down, and for furnaces and kilns you'd move to ceramic fibre, which goes up to 1260 °C. Where the line sits, indoors or out on a rack, matters too.
How thick should steam pipe insulation be?
There isn't one magic number. It comes down to the steam temperature, the pipe size, how hot you're okay with the outside getting and how much heat loss you'll accept. We work it out line by line, since putting 100 mm on a small branch is wasted money and putting 50 mm on a big header is wasted fuel.
Why does hot insulation need metal cladding?
Because wool only insulates while it's dry and holding its shape. The aluminium, GI or stainless jacket keeps rain, washdown water and the odd boot or spanner off it. Leave an outdoor line unclad and you'll see the difference after a monsoon or two.
Can you insulate valves and flanges?
Yes, and you should. We make removable boxes for valves, flanges and similar fittings, so they open for maintenance and close back up without anybody having to redo the insulation.
Do you do boiler insulation during a shutdown?
We do, quite a lot of it. Material gets staged before the shutdown starts, crews are rostered shift by shift, and the aim is always to close the scope before the window does.
Got a line list? Send it over.
Pipe sizes, temperatures and a few phone photos are plenty to start. We'll come back with the material, thickness, cladding and a rate in writing.
2,000+
clients so far, from refineries and power plants to pharma and textile units
