Product Description
Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation produced a range of rigid high-temperature block insulation products distinct from its widely known Kaylo calcium-silicate line. Where plain fiberglass block was limited to lower service temperatures, Owens-Corning’s high-temperature block insulation was allegedly formulated with asbestos-fiber reinforcement to allow service on hotter industrial equipment — utility boilers, superheater and reheater headers, steam-turbine casings, breechings, flue-gas ductwork, and process vessels operating above the range of unreinforced fiberglass block.
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Owens-Corning’s high-temperature block insulation, sold and installed on U.S. utility, refinery, chemical-plant, and marine equipment during the asbestos era, contained chrysotile and amosite asbestos in its binder and reinforcing matrix.
The block was supplied in preformed rigid slabs, scored and cut on-site by insulators to fit boiler drums, superheater headers, turbine casings, and irregular vessel geometry. Cut faces, saw kerfs, and broken edges are alleged to have liberated respirable asbestos fiber into the immediate work area.
Owens Corning is a corporate-trust defendant under the 11 U.S.C. § 524(g) bankruptcy-trust system through the Owens Corning / Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust.
Workers Exposed
- Insulators (HFIAW Locals) cutting, fitting, wiring, and cementing Owens-Corning high-temperature block onto industrial equipment
- Boilermakers and millwrights during rip-out of aged block insulation for tube repairs and casing work
- Pipefitters (UA members) during header-, valve-, and steam-trap re-insulation
- Navy insulators and hull technicians during shipboard block-insulation work in fire and engine rooms
- Bystander trades working alongside insulation crews during installation and tear-out