People living close to the volcanic area, had known Rock Wool since a long time. They observed mineral fibers being formed around volcano crater; these fibers are produced from the eruption of lava, which is highly charged with gases through the earth to the atmosphere.

Mineral wool is classified into three main types, Glass Wool, Rock Wool, and Slag Wool. Glass Wool has lower
service temperature. The properties of Rock and Slag Wool are similar, although, in general, the best-quality wools are produced from Rocks.

Slag Wool was first made in Germany in 1870 and Rock Wool is in the United States in 1897. There has been little change in the method of manufacture since the early days of the industry especially the fiber forming process. Early Rock Wool is made by subjecting a thin stream of molten rock to a steam or air; nowadays the fibers are formed by spinning the molten rock using high-speed cylindrical spinner machines.

AL TAZI Rockwool Factory started Rock Wool production with new technology to improve the Rock Wool fibers and to increase the production capacity while maintaining safely environmental friendly process with low emissions complying with the standards of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME).

AL TAZI Rock Wool products are produced to comply with technical requirements of the American standard ASTM C168, ASTM C612, ASTM C547, ASTM C592, ASTM C665,ASTM C553, international European standard BS EN13162, and Saudi Standard SASO-GSOEN13162.

Al Tazi Rockwool fibers are manufactured from natural volcanic rocks which is melted in cupola furnace at high temperature up to 1,500 ºC, the melt is formed into fibers using high speed fiberizing desks, the formed fibers will withstand high temperatures applications above 750 ºC.

The fibers are treated with special additives to gain flexibility and water repellency, then collected and processed on the production lines to form different types of Rock Wool products, which are widely used for thermo-acoustic insulation and fire proofing purposes.

Advantages of Thermal Insulation

1. Reduces the electric energy used for cooling and heating

Using thermal insulation will reduce the electric energy used in air-conditions with 30 – 40% as the thermal insulation will eliminate the heat flow through walls and roofs. This will also reduce the compressor working period resulting in reduction of electric consumption. Additionally, it will prolong the life span of air conditioning units and its maintenance cost.

2. Reduces the need for high capacity air-conditions and its maintenance cost

The capacity of air cooling units depends on the volume and the area to be cooled. Using the thermal insulation will eliminate the heat leakage leading to the use of less capacity units resulting in reduction of the cost of cooling and heating units.

3. Protection of the building materials from the temperature changes

Thermal insulation protects the building material from external weather changes that occurs, as a result of large difference of temperature during the day hours which leads to a continuous thermal stresses on building materials
and occurrences of cracks.

4. Protects the furniture inside the building

Un-insulated buildings are directly affected by external temperature, which makes the temperature inside the building unstable. Thus, furniture materials are affected and disintegrated if appropriate conditioning is not available.

5. Improving the level of comfort

Installation of thermal insulation in buildings contribute to raise the level of comfort of occupancy due to the stability of temperature inside the building even on the rough climate changes throughout the year. The air temperature inside insulated buildings is relatively acceptable, even in the worst days of summer. The thermal insulation materials eliminate the heat flow in the building, the inside air temperature is close to the temperature considered as comfortable temperature for human occupancy (25 – 27 °C).

6. Fire resistance

Using un-organic thermal insulation such as mineral wool or perlite will enhance the fire resistance of the buildings.

7. Reduce the value of electric peak loads

Using thermal insulation results in reducing the value of the energy in the electrical grid and reduce the load on the generating units, transmissions, and distributing networks.

8. Environmental protection

The use of mechanical systems for conditioning helps the emission off environmentally harmful gasses such as Carbon Dioxide, and Nitrogen Oxide produced by the combustion of energy needed to run air conditioners, this can be largely reduced by using thermal insulation.