Münster, 14. January 2020 – Armacell, a worldwide leading manufacturer of flexible insulation materials for equipment insulation and engineered foams has extended its range of prefabricated AF/ArmaFlex fitting covers. The industrially made elbows and T-pieces allow significant time and cost savings.
With the AF/ArmaFlex fitting covers fabricating elbows and T-pieces under difficult building site conditions is a thing of the past. The highly flexible fitting covers are not only much faster and easier to install, they also prevent material loss due to cutting errors. The ArmaFlex elbows and T-pieces are simply slit, laid around the component to be insulated and then glued along the longitudinal seams and butt joins. Manual prefabrication is no longer necessary, adhesive consumption and tack-drying times are reduced and the reliability of the installation increases, because there is less risk of errors being made when gluing seams.
As a case study carried out by Armacell shows, previously unused time-saving potential can be tapped by installing AF/ArmaFlex fitting covers. The study is based on a typical specification for low-temperature insulation work. It comprises the insulation of 1,223 fittings, including 946 elbows and T-pieces. By using AF/ArmaFlex fitting covers the assembly time can be reduced by 70 per cent compared to the traditional installation process. In this case that is equivalent to a 40-hour working week.
“Today, employees are more in demand than ever in the construction industry and the insulation sector is particularly hard hit by the shortage of skilled workers. This trend is set to become even more pronounced in the future as the number of apprentices in the skilled trades continues to decrease”, says Rabie Saado, Armacell Product Manager EMEA. “Therefore, industrially prefabricated components are becoming more and more attractive. Using ArmaFlex fitting covers allows skilled personnel to concentrate on more complex tasks – without compromising the quality and reliability of the application.”
The range includes 90° elbows and T-pieces for inner diameters from 15 to 168 mm in the insulation thicknesses AF-2 (11.5 mm – 15 mm), AF-4 (17 – 25 mm), AF-5 (25 – 31.5 mm) and AF-6 (32 – 45 mm). The fitting covers have engineered wall thicknesses and are coordinated with both the AF/ArmaFlex and Arma-Chek Silver range. With thermal conductivity of λ0° ≤ 0.033 W/(m∙K) and resistance to water-vapour transmission of up to µ ≥ 10,000, AF/ArmaFlex provides long-term protection against condensation and minimises energy losses on technical equipment. Furthermore, the antimicrobial Microban® technology ensures active protection against harmful bacteria and mould.