CertainTeed Corporation“s Insulation Group recently completed the addition of a new production line at its Kansas City, Kansas, plant to manufacture InsulSafe(R), blowing wool insulation products. Th…
CertainTeed Corporation“s Insulation Group recently completed the addition of a new production line at its Kansas City, Kansas, plant to manufacture InsulSafe(R), blowing wool insulation products. The new line boosts CertainTeed“s nationwide manufacturing capacity to make InsulSafe by 30%. The new, K22 line receives molten glass from the same furnace that supplies the plant“s K21 line, which entered service in 1998. K22 employs some of the latest technology in fiber production and also uses new hydraulic-actuated packaging machinery for faster cycle times, coupled with improvements in bag shape and uniformity. “The K22 production line has become a reality after just over a year in the planning process,” says Glenn Abraham, Kansas City plant manager. “The planning and start-up of the new line can be credited to the hard work and focus of the K22 team, which was comprised of an international group of Insulation Branch engineers and operations employees from the United States (Kansas City and Blue Bell, Pennsylvania), France and Germany.” CertainTeed was the industry pioneer in virgin blowing insulation with its introduction of InsulSafe, developed originally to meet the huge demand for insulation caused by the energy crisis in the late 1970s. Building materials maker CertainTeed Corporation is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and has 7,000 employees and 40 manufacturing facilities throughout the USA.