Knauf Performance
Materials
Bundled competence for natural building materials
Knauf Performance Materials is the specialist for industrial and horticultural products as well as natural and sustainable building materials based on refined perlite. Among these building materials are TecTem®, mineral interior insulation boards and flooring solutions associated with AQUAPANEL® Cement Board Floor with floor levelling and insulation fillers. The product range also includes PERLIGRAN® plant substrates, VOLITE® aggregates and other refined industrial perlites such as CRYOPERL®.
The traditional Dortmund-based company sees itself as a driving force for innovation in the construction industry – a claim that is impressively demonstrated time and again by its many new innovations and refinements to outstanding products. Knauf Performance Materials is known for its almost limitless range of applications as well as its state-of-the-art product technology, intelligent systems and service-oriented ideas and practices.
Perlite – the material from the volcano
Natural raw material for fills and more.
Perlite is a rock originating from volcanic lava. Through our share in a mine on the Greek Cycladic island of Milos – the best-known perlite mining area in Europe – we can access this valuable raw rock that we ship directly to Rotterdam and Dortmund. A special quality of the raw perlite from Milos is its specific crystal-water content, which makes it highly expandable.
We take advantage of this: in a special process, the “popcorn principle,” raw perlite is transformed into our base product, the precursor of numerous refined variants. The process begins with a thermal pre-treatment, and we heat the crude perlite to more than 1,000°C, which evaporates the water trapped in the stone and expands it to as much as 20 times its volume. Depending on the requirements of the end product, we refine this raw material for various industries and applications.
Perlite is light, non-combustible and meets the requirements of the A1 building material class in accordance with DIN 4102. Thanks to its uniform expansion and low dust content, perlite is particularly well suited to all types of fill and mortar and is offered in its pure form as well as enhanced for specific applications – coated with paraffin, silicone or special bitumen, for instance. But perlite not only has excellent insulating properties, it can also be used in many other areas of application; for example, in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Free of organic components, the material is biologically inert and impervious to aging, rot, shrinkage and vermin. Perlite lasts forever, so to speak.
