Environmental responsibility is vitally important to RockDelta. As part of the ROCKWOOL® Group, RockDelta® follows the strict, award winning, group environment policy that includes, for example: environmental analysis of all projects involving new production equipment or new products, an elaborate environmental management system and audits at the plants to assist the environmental work of the manufacturing companies. Also, the ROCKWOOL® companies have acceded to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s Business Charter for Sustainable Development – Principles for Environmental Management.
Stone Wool as the Basis for an Efficient Spring Element
Stone wool is probably best known in its capacity as a second-to-none, energy-saving and environmentally friendly thermal insulation material. Stone wool, however, comes with a multitude of other significant advantages that provide unique benefits in many industrial applications, e.g. as out-door noise barriers, as in-door acoustic control in ceiling systems, as façade panel boards, as reinforcement fibres in plastics, and as the basis for a durable, high-efficiency, spring element acting as a full-contact, sheet-type resilient element in railway and tramway tracks.
RockDelta solutions for noise and vibration reduction are manufactured at ROCKWOOL® factories to stringent standards, including: the Quality System Certificate, EN ISO 9001:1994 and the Environmental Management System Certificate 14001:1996. The quality of our products and the care for our environment are very important issues for RockDelta. Our vibration isolation products are 100% recyclable, incombustible and are safe to work with.
Stone Wool Production: An Artificial Volcano
The creation of stone wool is a natural phenomenon of nature that may – under certain conditions – be observed after volcanic activity. Imitating the natural process is today done in highly sophisticated machinery using an elaborate production process that allows for a wide range of carefully engineered products.
Stone wool production at ROCKWOOL® factories follows stringent quality control measures thereby ensuring a top-performing product with constant material parameters. For a track equipped with a RockDelta anti-vibration solution, this in turn provides for a very high level of functional performance stability.
ROCKWOOL® stone wool, as the basis for all RockDelta products, is made from diabase which is mixed with coke and lime and subsequently melted in large cupola furnaces at approximately 1500°C. The resulting melted mass is directed down onto a fast spinning wheel that whirls the melted stones mass into thin threads with an average diameter of 0,005 mm. A binding agent is added and – as one of the last stages of the “hot-end” production process – the desired density of the impregnated stone wool product is carefully selected.
This is being followed by the final production step where the stone wool is hardened in special furnaces, thereby curing the binding agent. The finished ROCKWOOL® stone wool product is then ready for various “cold-end” tailoring processes, including a unique aging process that ensures outstanding long-term mechanical stability, whereby the product is turned into its designated RockXolid® or RockBallast® application.
The experienced ROCKWOOL® factories can produce RockDelta solutions for reduction of vibration in all sectors from tramways to high-speed lines. In the production process the performance of RockDelta products can be adjusted to suit the requirements of our customers.
