New Plant to Help Owens Corning Meet Demand for Bio-based Products
Gastonia, North Carolina, facility to feature advanced manufacturing technology to meet growing customer demand for Sustaina®, the company's non-woven glass fiber fabric
ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), a leading global producer of glass fiber reinforcements for composite systems, is building a new advanced technology facility in Gastonia, North Carolina, that will help meet demand for bio-based products. The new, state-of-the-art equipment will add manufacturing flexibility to produce different widths of the company's new Sustaina® non-woven glass fiber fabric. This will enable more customers to use the product in their applications.
Sustaina® surfacing and reinforcing glass non-wovens were introduced to the European market in June 2013. The Sustaina® solution uses a bio-based binder system with high tensile strength performance and does not contain any formaldehyde. The new plant will be able to run four-meter widths of Sustaina® fabric, rather than the narrower width currently produced on existing assets.
"Building a new site is a great opportunity for us to install the newest, most advanced manufacturing technology," said Steven Vermeulen, vice president and managing director, Engineered Solutions. "The line is designed to facilitate the highest level of quality and efficiency – the flexibility to produce the wider veil will help us get better yields and there will be less waste."
Sustaina® fabric, is designed for use in residential and commercial building applications, like cushion vinyl flooring, ceiling backings, and insulation facers. For carpet tiles, Sustaina® non-wovens' high hot tensile strength is an advantage over non-wovens with acrylic binders. Sustaina® non-wovens also offer significant cost savings over conventional non-urea-formaldehyde non-wovens.
"With our Gastonia plant, we'll be able to meet the growing demand for Sustaina non-wovens," Vermeulen added. "It's a way we can help our customers move toward their environmental objectives while also improving their performance."
Owens Corning is exhibiting at CAMX 2014 in Orlando this week, at the Orange County Convention Center, West Building. Owens Corning is in booth #2273 in the exhibit hall.
About Owens Corning
Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) is a leading global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass-fiber reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems. A Fortune® 500 company for 60 consecutive years and in business for more than 75 years, Owens Corning is a market-leading innovator of glass-fiber technology with sales of $5.3 billion in 2013 and about 15,000 employees in 27 countries. Additional information is available at: www.owenscorning.com.
SOURCE Owens Corning
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