Only two years ago ROCKWOOL Technical Insulation unleashed its innovative WR-Tech water repellent technology in mandrel wound pipe sections to help the industry get to grips with corrosion under insulation (CUI). Since then, plenty of plant owners have been convinced, engineers have upgraded their specifications, while contractors and installers have frequently applied this solution in new-build and maintenance projects. We also won the 2019 NACE Corrosion Innovation Award.
Today, we bring our proven WR-Tech technology to our new generation of ProRox Wired Mats, making the insulation five times more water repellent than the standard stone wool solutions available on the market, even after heating and aging.
Fact: water ingression in plant equipment is unavoidable. So, corrosion under insulation is a major issue in the industry. It can cause hazardous events, process stoppages and plant shutdowns. It can increase a plant’s environmental impact (due to pipe leakages or ruptures and efficiency loss), and it can put your reputation at risk. As a consequence, CUI is expensive, accounting for an estimated 10% of overall maintenance costs and 40-60% of pipeline maintenance costs. So to mitigate CUI it’s vital to keep steel pipes, vessels and columns as dry as possible. Which is exactly what our insulation incorporating WR-Tech does.
Our ProRox stone wool insulation products with WR-Tech, Water Repellency Technology, help the industry mitigate CUI-related problems in a highly effective way. WR-Tech is a revolutionary binder technology that coats each individual fiber of our stone wool insulation during the production process. Our patent-pending solution applies an inorganic, hydrophobic additive to the stone wool fiber, making the insulation five times more water repellent (at 482°F/250°C) than standard EN-compliant stone wool. You can read all about its strong, unique water repellent features here.
Since launching WR-Tech in our ProRox mandrel wound pipe sections it has proven its added value in multiple projects. Now we have applied the WR-Tech technology to our ProRox wired mats. Our wired mats are especially suitable for insulating large diameter pipework, vessels and columns and for applications demanding design flexibility. As a result, the whole pipeline can be protected from CUI, even bends. Enabling us to double our efforts to help keep industrial plants safe, ensure continuous process operations, reduce environmental impacts and lower total maintenance costs.
Since we successfully launched WR-Tech on our ProRox mandrel wound pipe sections, where it has proven its added value in several occasions (see cases), we now also apply it on our ProRox wired mats. Our wired mats are especially suited for insulation of large diameter pipework, vessels and columns or for applications where design flexibility is required. This gives the opportunity to protect the complete pipeline against CUI, even bends. This enables us even more to help keep industrial plants safe, ensure continuous process operations, reduce environmental impact and lower total maintenance costs.
NACE, the worldwide corrosion authority, states that “because CUI is a product of wet metal exposure duration, the insulation system that holds the least amount of water and dries most quickly should result in the least amount of corrosion damage to equipment.” (NACE SP0198-2017 (2.1.2))
This makes WR-Tech the most effective solution to help mitigate corrosion under insulation. A convincing argument that prompted Materials Performance Magazine, a NACE International publication, to award the technology with the 2019 Corrosion Innovation of the Year Award. WR-Tech was selected from more than 50 nominees and was one of 10 technologies to receive the coveted innovation award as judged by a panel of corrosion experts. To be considered an innovation, nominated projects are required to show the potential for a significant positive impact in corrosion control. We delivered!
Looking for more reasons to implement our ProRox solutions with WR-Tech? Click on the link here below or contact your local sales representative for more details and the full overview of ROCKWOOL ProRox solutions with WR-Tech.
