The New Kid on the Block - But not 'just a regular kid'

We are the new kid in town and we are proud of that. Born and raised from the ambition to deliver the best performing thermal insulation solutions for the industry. Pioneering new technologies, making the best better and never compromise on quality. Vulcor Insulation can help you save energy.

We are offering an extensive product range of insulation solutions from cryogenic temperatures all the way up to the specialty furnaces operating in the most demanding atmospheres and harsh conditions, but Vulcor Insulation is mostly known for the company offering the first Generation III, Ultra Low Shot fiber product. Due to the low shot contents and high fiber index the SoliWool product range are offering the toughest tensile strength, superior handling and last, but not least; lowest thermal conductivity.

Whilst other manufacturers have been arround for decades, we have accomplished all this in only 5 years from start. Yes, our journey started only a few years ago when a group of passionate people from the industry decided to set up a new company. Dedicated to do things differently and was not satisfied with ‘good enough’. And in this 5 years we extended our product range and now offer 5 grades of Refractory Ceramic Fibers, 2 grades of Low Bio Persistence Fiber, a Poly Crystalline based composition in all shapes and formats. We do not only manufacture bulk and blankets, but also have boards, papers, felts and monolithic fiber modules.

And whilst we developed these products we made sure to clear all required certification, including: REACH, Fraunhofer (exoneration of carcinogenic classification), 3th party testing of declared properties and ISO certification at the manufacturing location. Today our fiber products are widely used in the iron and steel, petrochemical, fire protection, automotive, ceramic, non-ferrous, glass and power industry.

With every project we are proud to know that the carefully selected, engineered, manufactured and provided solution will perform to expectations, minimize energy consumption and generates financial savings whilst securing a stable environment for production and comfort today and for the future. – that’s our passion

Rooted in the Netherlands

Vulcor Insulation most fundamental roots are originated from Trencon Vuurvast (Trencon Refractory) which was founded by John Lekkerkerk. In 1982 he founded his trading company for high temperature insulation products from a small home office in the little town of Oude Tonge in the Netherlands.

Even though the company Trencon Vuurvast was merged into the cooperate structure of one of the leading parties in high temperature insulation product, the family name of Lekkerkerk maintained heavily involved in the refractory industry.

In 2018 Bennie Lekkerkerk grew independent from the cooperate structure and first got involved in Teqtix Group in Oosterhout, the Netherlands, which manufactures phenolic foam insulation for low temperature applications and fire protection.

But soon after, and together with an large group of ex colleagues, he got involved in an ambitious project to set up one of the largest high temperature fiber factories of the world. With the knowhow of the team the ambition was soon set; we want to make the best insulation fiber products in the world, no compromise on quality and performance. This was the start of Vulcor Insulation.

Today, we have an extensive team of highly experienced people and supply projects around the globe. We team up with partner companies which are offering our products in North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East. This allows us to offer you global service with local attention.

Nevertheless, the heart and soul of the company is still rooted in the Netherlands.

Passion for innovation

Our world has changed in the past few decades with reduced CO2 emissions and energy consumption as the key drivers. Even though energy consumption in heavy industry is inevitable, we believe that our ambition should be providing better thermal efficient and more sustainable refractory linings. This will not only help our customers to save their energy consumption, but in effect reduce their global carbon footprint.

For this reason innovation and development are deeply embedded in our strategic ambitions. The Ultra Low Shot technology is a clear example of that ambition, but also our spun high alumina fiber blanket, the SoliBlanket HA and the SoliBoard PCW INO for operating temperature till 1600 C are some of the unique products which can only be developed with deep knowledge of the market, understanding the needs of the industry and the sufficient development resources. And we hope to bring more innovative products to the industry in the coming years.

Underneath you can read more on some of our featured innovations:

Ultra Low Shot Technology

As asset owner your main interest is a long lifetime of your refractory lining. At Vulcor Insulation we are providing much more than that… Better thermal insulation means lower CO2 emissions, lower gas consumption and safer casing temperatures. And this is thanks to the Generation III or Ultra Low Shot (ULS) technology, which the basis of every fiber solution we are providing to the market. Compared to a Generation I or Generation II high temperature fiber the SoliWool product range is providing a better thermal insulation, a higher mechanical strength and an improved handling. These improved technical properties are the result of our low shot contents compared to the other types of insulation fiber.

Modern testing of Shot is done using the Jet Sieve method which has several fine mesh filters. At every filter a portion of the shot fraction remains on the filter. The finer the filter, the smaller the fractions of shot contents. Generation III fiber product not only has a lower shot contents, but the main gain over a Generation I and Generation II fiber sits with the coarse shot. Coarse shot is worst with respect of strength, thermal conductivity or vibration resistance. Do not forget that 1 shot particle of 250 micron could have been over 3 meters (9 feet) of good, insulating, fiber.

The higher the fiber index, the better the high temperature fiber will perform during its lifetime. Key factors to improve the fiber index are minimizing the shot contents and optimizing fiber diameter. The remainder is related to the fiber orientation as result of the needling system. Our ULS technology combines all these key perimeters. With SoliWool you can optimize your lining thickness or reduce your energy consumption as well as your CO2 emissions. These advantages do not remain just to our blanket products, but we also see much higher yield for bulk in VF processing, better reversibility after compression with papers and cleaner machining for boards.

The birth of our SoliBoard PCW INO board

After a development process of more than 6 months we are delighted to introduce our latest addition to our SoliBoard product family; the SoliBoard PCW INO board. The SoliBoard PCW INO is adding a new product to the top end of temperature offering @1600°C/ 2900°F classification temperature. Using a mixture of special inorganic binders we have been able to minimize off gassing and LOI at first firing. Furthermore, it neither sees the typical loss of strength which is common for organic binder based boards. Testing both internally and at external laboratory is confirming what we hoped for: less then 1% shrinkage when tested for 24 hours @ 1600°C.The best of all is that we can run this product on our continuous board productionline making is both competitive technically and commercially. A warm welcome to the SoliBoard PCW INO to the SoliWool fiber family…

A passion for technical insulation solutions

Vulcor Insulation has it headoffice located in the Netherlands, but has local representation throughout Europe and in the North American market. Even though we have a strong focus on the high temperature fiber industry, through its involvement in the manufacturing of these products, we also have strong partnerships for phenolic foam (cryogenic temperatures and fireprotection) and e-glass products (intermediate temperatures and automotive).

If you see the factory were we manufacture our SoliWool fiber solutions, it is hard to imagine that back in 2017 it just was a ‘Greenfield’ plan. Today our state of the art factory spans over 75.000 m2 (800.000ft2) and manufactures the lastest quality and most advanced high temperature fibers available in the world.

The SoliWool productrange consists of engineered bulk fiber, Ultra Low Shot technology blankets, dust free and smooth papers, flexible felts, high tech manufacturered board products, tailored to shape vacuum formed shapes and one of the widest ranges of fiber modules.

We are one of an exclusive group of suppliers which have completed their REACH registration and for that reason comply with the European regulations for import of high temperature fibers. Our low bio persistence fibers (LBP) meet the requirements specified under NOTE Q of European Regulation 1272/2008 and have been fully tested by Fraunhofer.

All the SoliWool are manufactured with our Generation III, Ultra Low Shot technology. The SoliWool is outperforming conventional refractory ceramic fibers (RCF) and low bio persistence fibers (LBP) on both thermal conductivity, mechanical strength and handling properties. Next to our range of RCF and LBP fibers we also manufacture our own developed Poly Crystalline Wool (PCW) boards and papers.

Good examples of our state of the art manufacturing location are the continuous board and paper line production lines. By an advanced drying system we have been reducing the energy usage for drying with more than 50%, and generate a part of this energy with our 35.000 m2 (400.000 ft2) solar panels.

That is not just ambitious, but revolutionary…

Intermediate temperatures and Rhinophen

The product portofolio in the high temperature industry is complimented with a selected range of e-glass and silica fiber products which are manufactured to operate in a temperature range of 250°C to 900°C. The main application is for automotive heat shields where the fiber is encapsulated with a stainless steel tailored pre-shaped liner. However, also for other applications like domestic boilers and as insulation for intermediate temperatures we are able to offer a complete and competitive product offering.

Last but not least is our phenolic foam product range, called Rhinophen which has been developed together with Teqtix Group and manufactured in the Netherlands. Available in a wide range of densities and serving a wide range of markets; from general pipe insulation, where the product is used in a temperature range of -180°C to + 120°C, to core material in fire doors, where the product can be short term (< 60 minutes) exposed to temperature over 1100°C.

Our ambition is not only to offer a product range which can be labelled ‘me-too’, but refreshing, more sustainable and clearly better then what our industry has been provided with over the last few decades. So far, we have exceeded our ambitions and will continue to do so in the many years to come.