Atlas Introduces First Ozone-Safe Polyiso Foam

Atlas Roofing Corporation has become the first North American manufacturer of polyisocyanurate foam insulation (polyiso) to introduce a totally ozone-safe product. In February of this year, the company announced its shift from HCFC-141b to pentane as the blowing agent. The first hydrocarbon-blown polyiso, called AC Ultra™, is coming from a prototype production line at their Mesa, Arizona plant. Limited production of this foam has been occurring for about a year, according to Marketing Services Manager Rick Gelatka. Conversion of the second plant, in LaGrange, Georgia, should be completed during the third quarter of 1998. Total conversion of the company’s 13 manufacturing facilities should be completed in about three years, well ahead of the mandated January 1, 2003 date for phaseout of HCFC-141b.

By way of history, polyiso used to be blown with CFC-11. When evidence became irrefutable that CFCs destroyed stratospheric ozone, most of the world adopted the ground-breaking Montreal Protocol, which mandated the phaseout of CFCs for most non-essential uses by 1996. In 1993 Atlas became the first polyiso manufacturer to complete the transition to HCFC-141b, which has only 10% to 12% the ozone-depletion potential of CFC-11—but is the most damaging of the HCFCs. It was known that HCFC-141b was only a transitional blowing agent; modifications to the Montreal Protocol later mandated the phaseout of this chemical by 2003. EBN has generally recommended against use of polyiso foam because of the relatively high ozone depletion potential of the HCFC-141b blowing agent.

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