Saint-Gobain leads in one-stop solutions for quality insulation

Subramanian N E, Managing Director, highlights that the insulation market in India is booming and driven by demands from various sectors. Saint-Gobain India’s advanced solutions and strategic expansions ensure superior energy efficiency, sustainability, and compliance with stringent health and safety standards.

What is your perspective about the current market for insulation in India?

The insulation market is rapidly growing and is driven by demand from the building, HVAC, industrial, and transportation sectors. This growth is fuelled by new projects, expansions, and modernisation of existing facilities. With the implementation of environment-friendly systems in industrial processes such as Waste Heat Recovery Systems (WHRS), Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD), and Waste to Energy Systems (W2E), the demand for good-quality insulation is on the rise.

Please brief us about applying insulation for industrial processes and building spaces.

Insulation is essential for achieving energy savings, improving thermal comfort, and providing acoustic control while also ensuring fire and health safety.

Industrial processes use Saint-Gobain Rockinsul stone wool insulation for boilers, pipelines, vessels, DG sets and exhaust ducts. This reduces fuel consumption, maintains process temperature and ensures acoustic control per statutory norms.

Buildings require lightweight insulation for their roof, walls and partitions. For such applications, we offer a range of Twigainsul glass wool insulation that allows a comfortable and quieter working environment, enhancing employee productivity.

HVAC systems in any industry or building carry cold/hot air that generates noise. The Right insulation in chiller pipes, AHU rooms, and air ducts enables reduced energy consumption, noise control in ducts, and uniform cooling of the area, ensuring health and fire safety.

How do regulatory guidelines impact the selection of insulation?

The selection of insulation should be based on application requirements such as operating temperature range, surface shape, mechanical strength, anti-fungal properties and non-combustibility.

Building guidelines such as the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), application standards such as IS 14164 and insulation product standards such as IS 8183 extensively cover insulation selection and properties. Recent developments in IS 8183 benefit the customer by raising product quality parameters and play a crucial role in reducing energy consumption in the country.

What features differentiate Saint-Gobain products in terms of insulation material and performance?

Saint-Gobain India manufactures mineral wool insulation Twigainsul (glass wool) and Rockinsul (stone wool). We provide a one-stop solution for most applications from sub-zero temperatures up to 750 deg C. With a focus on high-quality raw materials and stringent process control measures, we deliver superior insulation products.

Customers prefer our products’ longevity, performance, and non-corrosive nature compared to surrounding metal structures/equipment. Our insulation retains its thermal and acoustic properties throughout its lifespan under continuous high operating temperatures. The fibres do not settle with use, maintaining the desired surface temperature and ensuring fewer process disruptions.

Our products’ chloride content is negligible, significantly reducing the risk of corrosion of surrounding metal equipment. With EUCEB-certified insulation (European Certification Board for Mineral Wood Products), our customers can be confident that our products are bio-soluble and health-safe.

What advantages does the acquisition of UP Twiga Fiberglass and Rockwool India bring to Saint-Gobain India’s newly formed insulation division?

UP Twiga Fiberglass and Rockwool India are pioneers in the Indian insulation market and have rich experience and a well-established market presence. Saint-Gobain is a global leader in light and sustainable construction with an in-depth knowledge of the construction, mobility and industrial markets. Saint-Gobain also brings about its latest technology through its flagship research institutes, one of which is located in Chennai. We have expanded our product offerings to our customers with the two acquisitions. In addition to the existing portfolio of Rockinsul LRB Mattresses, RB Slabs, Pipe sections, Tuffinsul Slabs / Lamella Bats and Twigainsul Rolls, Boards, Pipe Sections and Flexible Ducts, we now offer Climaver and Cryolene.

Climaver is our range of duct boards, which replace traditional metal duct and insulation systems. They are 70 percent lighter and easy to install.

Cryolene is our range of resilient blankets for cryogenic tanks which store LNG, LPG and Liquid oxygen / Nitrogen / Hydrogen. It may be used for an operating temperature range of -170 to +120 deg C. With extended lengths up to 40 m and reinforced facing of high tensile strength, it allows easy installation and low maintenance.

What measures does Saint-Gobain take to ensure compliance with health and safety standards in the production and installation of its insulation materials in India?

Choosing a non-combustible insulation product that does not emit toxic fumes when in contact with fire is an investment in human safety. With the increasing exposure of users and applicators to insulation products, it is becoming imperative to use health-safe, bio-soluble insulation.

Saint-Gobain Twigainsul (glass wool) and Rockinsul (stone wool) products are non-combustible. They adhere to stringent health and safety standards and are EUCEB-certified. EUCEB helps increase the consumers’ confidence about the safety of mineral wool products for human health. Any product EUCEB certified falls within a specific range of chemical composition as per certain testing criteria. These products generally are considered bio-soluble and are certified by a third party.

How does your business address growth, sustainability, and energy efficiency?

At Saint-Gobain, we prioritise delivering quality products that provide excellent insulation properties. Many substitute products, such as slag wool, deteriorate over time, leading to unwanted heat loss or gain that can disrupt process temperatures and cause wastage. Users may need additional fuel, increasing their energy costs to maintain these temperatures. Poor quality insulation also entails high changeover costs and often contains high chloride content, which accelerates the corrosion of insulated equipment.

Saint-Gobain insulation products are manufactured under controlled conditions with strict quality monitoring. The initial investment at the time of purchase is only a minor percentage of the insulation’s lifetime cost. As a result, our customers realise significant energy savings, lower maintenance costs and consistent processes, enabling growth with a reduced carbon footprint.

Committed to sustainability, we continuously innovate to support our net zero carbon target, ensuring our operations and products contribute positively to the environment.

How does your insulation business align products with market needs?

With rising building expansion, there is also a need for lightweight and sustainable solutions. Our glass wool products with the right facing are lightweight and eliminate the need for weld mesh in roofing applications. They help reduce overall system costs while ensuring thermal comfort, energy savings, and acoustic benefits.

With a dedicated range of products like Climaverduct board and Twigainsul acoustic boards for HVAC applications, we offer performance, strength, and sustainability with lightweight solutions. Our Climaver range is a direct replacement for metal duct+insulation systems, reducing the weight of ducting systems by up to 70 percent.