The polyurethane is well known as a highly appreciated material and its use increased dramatically in the past decades; especially in the developed world.
The main reason for its increased usage is mainly related to the many positive attributes in its usage including its environmental friendliness.
To explain this trend and to disprove some of the misleading opinions that are still present in the general population, we assembled some of the interesting facts as follows:
- Polyurethane saves energy expenses due to its high insulation capacity; more than any other material (see comparison). The energy saving reduces the need for the burning of polluters in order to produce energy and herewith leads to the improvement in the quality of the environment
- Due to the ability of spraying the polyurethane and hence receiving a uniform covering of the surface with no thermal bridges (and without any limitation or obstacles in the path of the sprayed area) the insulation capability is increased at a significant rate.
- Energy saved following the use of polyurethane for one cubic meter is 80 times more than the energy needed for its production.
- Polyurethane stands up to the strictest standards both in Israel and abroad (among others US and Europe), and therefore is being widely used for the food industry and residential building construction.
- Polyurethane specially formulated and produced from the IN range of Polyurethane Ltd. is tested according to the Israeli norm 755 and stands up to the demands of the standard 921 for residential building.
- Polyurethane also saves energy by reducing the weight of vehicles. This helps to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide emissions when using the vehicle.
- Polyurethane does not contain gases that damage the ozone layer. Thanks to the great efforts starting in the 80s, so-called greenhouse gases have been replaced by other environmentally friendly alternatives. (According to the Montreal Protocol).
- Polyurethane is recyclable. Instead of burning petrol/coal/gas (air-polluting process), leftover polyurethane can be burned in a special facility, converting waste to energy. This process does not cause pollution and the waste volume is reduced by more than 99% (which is important should there not be enough waste dumping grounds). This process cannot be applied to inorganic materials such as mineral building materials.
- Foamed polyurethane does not emit poisonous gases – this material is inert (not active) after finishing the polymerization process. Only when being burned can such gases escape, but the scale would be minimal (similar to wood), and significantly far from the internationally agreed limits. Consequently, this material is permitted for residential buildings according to the American, European and Israeli standards.
All the above mentioned facts are based on worldwide and Israeli researches. Some have been published in the book “PU handbook”, by the publishing agency Hanser (München, Vienna and New York), 2nd edition 1994; others were taken from the publication of the NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency), US; the “Plastics Flammability Handbook” by the company Bayer Material Science; the catalogue for the classification of fire resistance for flammable building materials, edited by Dr. Moshe Futterman and Ricardo Gora (published by the National institute for building research, Technion, Haifa) and further researches that were carried out in Europe.
