Owens Corning Supplier (International)

[Ermz]

Hello People,

I'm fairly new to this section of the forums, but I'm really glad I found it, because there is a well of great info around. It's also really inspiring to see people from GIK Acoustics and RealTraps posting fairly regularly, so you know you're getting some experienced advice, rather than the 'pin the tail on the donkey' stuff that goes on elsewhere.

Now, I live in Australia and to put it frankly... our insulation products suck. If they don't suck a lot then they certainly cost a lot.

Can any of you put me in touch with a supplier of 703 that is willing to ship to Australia? I'd like to compare the relative cost/benefit ratio against local products.

Thank you very much!

[Ethan Winer]

What can you get there? I'm sure something worthwhile is available there!

--Ethan

[Ermz]

Well so far I've narrowed it down to 3 manufacturers, and 3 different products:

Tontine Acoustisorb3: Tontine AcoustiSorb (pg6)

Insulco Semi-Rigid (John Sayers seems to like this one): http://www.insulation.com.au/INSULCO...Semi-Rigid.pdf

And also the Bradford Fibertex350 which has been mentioned in some other threads here on the front page: http://www.bradfordinsulation.com.au...6f18d60b4a.pdf

None of it seems to perform quite as well. The Fibertex is extremely expensive, I'm concerned that the Insulco Semi-Rigid isn't rigid enough to stand without chicken wire (big problem for us as we want to make many panels quickly) and the Acoustisorb is polyester-based, which I haven't read much about in regards to effectiveness. From what I gather most people still prefer fiberglass for pure performance?

Thank you for the reply.

[avare]

Use the Bradford Fibertex350.

Andre

[Jamesie]

Hey Ermin,

I had the same problem here in New Zealand but found the Roxul products.

They seam to be similar to the Owens Products. (Check out the Data Sheets to see the ratings as your products there are slightly different to in NZ).

Something like the Industrial Slab 590 should be great or possibly one of the Multi Purpose Slabs.

You have a company there called AIS Group that should be able to help you out.

AIS - Australasian Insulation Supplies Pty Ltd

All the best,

Paul

[Ermz]

Originally Posted by avare

Use the Bradford Fibertex350.

Andre

Is there a particular reason you suggest the fibertex? Its low-end absorption figures seem significantly lower than the other two contenders for the same thicknesses.

@Jamesie: Thank you for the suggestion. I'll check them out.

[avare]

Originally Posted by Ermz

Is there a particular reason you suggest the fibertex? Its low-end absorption figures seem significantly lower than the other two contenders for the same thicknesses.

The Fibertex350 is closest to 703 in performance. That was your original question. You can use Bob's absorption page for further comparisons.

Andre

[Ermz]

Okay, thank you.

It's the fact that it doesn't have published NRC figures beyond 50mm thickness that bothers me. I assume there's no way to know whether it scales with the 703 in terms of its ability to handle low-end once the jump to 4" is made?

[Glenn Kuras]

I think you could pretty much use any of the 3 and it is going work for you. Granted I skimmed pretty quick through the pages.

Glenn

[Ermz]

Originally Posted by Jamesie

Hey Ermin,

I had the same problem here in New Zealand but found the Roxul products.

They seam to be similar to the Owens Products. (Check out the Data Sheets to see the ratings as your products there are slightly different to in NZ).

Something like the Industrial Slab 590 should be great or possibly one of the Multi Purpose Slabs.

You have a company there called AIS Group that should be able to help you out.

AIS - Australasian Insulation Supplies Pty Ltd

All the best,

Paul

I just got in touch with AIS and you are correct, it seems the Industrial Slab 590 is the best option here in Australia. Unfortunately they don't carry the Canadian line for whatever reason.

Now the 590 is >110kg/m3 and it's a Stone Wool product rather than rockwool. Would that perhaps be overkill in the rigidity department? It has some fairly reasonable figures at 100mm thick, but the Canadian products, at half the rigidity, still beat it.

@Glenn Kuras: Thank you for skimming over. The thing is that I want the very 'best' performing product I can get, at the lowest possible cost. So it's a matter of sorting through the 3 of them and seeing which is the most effective, for the least. It tends to be hard to tell as they rarely test the product at 100mm thickness, so it's a matter of doing an educated guess as to how well they absorb lows.

Another thing I'm thinking about is how smooth the surface of the product is. I'm hoping to use spray glue adhesive to stick the fabric on (beats the sewing we did before to fit the whole frame in). The pictures of the Fibertex350 I've seen imply a fairly coarse surface. Would rigid fiberglass be a better option than rigid rockwool, simply because of the surface? I'm also looking into polyester based products.

[Jamesie]

Just looked through AIS's data sheets a bit closer and the MPS 400 seams to have pretty good stats.

http://www.ais-group.com.au/industri...Slab%20400.pdf

Did they carry this line or is that from the same Canadian line?

Maybe check that out.

All the best,

Paul

[Ermz]

Originally Posted by Jamesie

Just looked through AIS's data sheets a bit closer and the MPS 400 seams to have pretty good stats.

http://www.ais-group.com.au/industri...Slab%20400.pdf

Did they carry this line or is that from the same Canadian line?

Maybe check that out.

All the best,

Paul

Nice find!

Yes, they carry it. It's part of the local line.

It's around 100kg/m3, which seems quite rigid. Would it be safe to assume that this stuff would be really heavy?

I'm still looking around but that seems like a very good contender. The only other one still in the game for me is Tontine, which has some very good figures for a polyester insulation. Would make assembly a less worrying process too.