Honeywell announced that All Weather Insulated Panels (AWIP), a leader in the production of insulated metal panels for walls and roofs, has transitioned panel production for commercial applications to insulating foam made with Honeywell’s Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent (LBA).

Solstice LBA, which is based on hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) technology, is a critical ingredient in closed-cell foam, allowing it to expand and providing much of its excellent insulating properties. Solstice LBA increases the thermal performance of conventionally processed polyurethane (PUR) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam in both continuous and discontinuous panel operations.

“The transition from HFC-245fa foam blowing agent to Solstice LBA will advance our insulated metal panel technology to further meet the growing energy, environmental and economic challenges facing the North American building industry,” said William Lowery, president, All Weather Insulated Panels. “We strive to provide the best products for today’s challenging market conditions. These panels are well aligned with evolving environmental regulations that call for an eventual phase-out of HFC blowing agents.”

Lowery added that Solstice LBA will make their panels more efficient in terms of energy retention and help AWIP be prepared for the stringent environmental standards that will go into effect in 2020. 

 AWIP’s wall, roof and interior partition panels are used in a variety of commercial and industrial applications such as cold storage warehouses, wineries, coolers, freezers and food processing facilities, which require temperature-controlled environments. AWIP operates two continuous line manufacturing facilities in Vacaville, Calif. and Little Rock, Ark.

“We are very pleased that AWIP, an innovation leader in North America, has chosen Solstice LBA for its production of commercial panels,” said Patrick Clifford, global business manager for Honeywell’s foam blowing agents business. “Demand for Solstice LBA continues to accelerate as more and more insulation producers are seeing the advantages of our new fourth-generation blowing agent.”

Solstice LBA is being adopted by rigid insulation manufacturers worldwide to reduce their environmental footprint and comply with environmental and energy efficiency regulations. Adoption of Solstice products by Honeywell customers worldwide has resulted in the reduction of more than 30 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to-date, equal to eliminating emissions from more than six million cars. 

Solstice LBA has an ultra-low global-warming-potential (GWP) of 1, which is 99.9 percent lower than hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and equal to carbon dioxide. It is nonflammable (ASTM E-681) and is not a volatile organic compound per U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is listed under the U.S. EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program and is also registered under the European Union’s REACH program. Honeywell’s new world-scale production capacity manufacturing plant for Solstice LBA started up in May 2014.

For more information on Solstice LBA, visit www.honeywell-blowingagents.com.