EXIBA - EUROPEAN EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE INSULATION BOARD ASSOCIATION

XPS-History

Success in Europe

XPS-insulation boards

Production variations


	XPS-History In 1941, the Dow Chemical Company developed a light weight PS foam which was highly pressure resistant and highly resistant to moisture. It was first in buoyancy applications. In the early 1950’s it was increasingly used as thermal insulation material due to its excellent thermal performance.

Success in Europe
The commercialisation of blue Dow STYROFOAM® in Europe started in 1963 and was quickly complemented by a further extruded polystyrene foam: the green BASF STYRODUR®. Today there are many other producers. The following companies are member of EXIBA and they all differentiate themselves by the brand name of product and the colour of the foam



	austrotherm.com



	styrodur.com



	styrofoameurope.com



	izocam.com.tr



	jackon-insulation.com



	knaufinsulation.com



	nordicfoam.com



	ode.com.tr



	sirapgema.com



	ursa-online.com

These products today are widely used in the extensive applications and contribute highly to the energy efficiency of buildings throughout Europe. Hence, it helps Europe to achieve to reach its Kyoto-targets to reduce CO₂ emissions.

While extruded polystyrene foam can proudly look back on its almost 60-years history, looking back has never been a distinctive characteristic of the Exiba members. Development, research, and improvements continue every day, so we can be curious to see what the foam experts will come up with in the future.

How is XPS produced?


	XPS is produced by a continuous extrusion process: blowing-agent-free polystyrene granules are melted in an extruder and a blowing agent is injected into the extruder under high pressure where it dissolves into the polystyrene melt. This blowing-agent con-taining melt exits the extruder via a slot die. The blowing agent expands due to the drop in pressure which causes the polystyrene to foam into the form of a board with homoge-neous and closed cell structure. Exiba members use mainly CO2 as a blowing agent. For some special applications requiring a very low thermal conductivity HFC’s are the pre-ferred blowing agent. The blowing agents used by Exiba members have zero ozone depletion potential (ODP).


	XPS-insulation boards Variations in the slot die allow board thicknesses between 20 mm and 200 mm. After passing through a cooling zone, the boards’ edges are trimmed. The smooth foam skin resulting from the extrusion process remains on the boards or is removed mechanically for particular board types to achieve better adhesive strength in combination with e.g. concrete, mortar, or construction adhesives. Some boards receive special surface pat-terns or grooves.


	Production variations The variation of process parameters during production allows the modification of the XPS product characteristics in order to satisfy the various application requirements. With foam densities between 20 and 50 kg/m3 compressive strength values can be achieved from 150 to 700 kPa. This corresponds to loading capacities between 15 and 70 tons per square metre. XPS’s rated thermal conductivity values currently range from 0.029 to 0.045 W/(m K). Further optimisations promise further improvements.