Insulation Wars

Thermal insulation wars, discussed below, have recently become more intense, possibly due to consumers' search for a more effective and safer energy-saving method.
All companies periodically engage in large-scale battles for their customers. To win, they use various tactics, from cold-calling competitors to planting their own agent in a rival firm's financial department.
The insulation wars we've been discussing have become more intense lately, likely because consumers are searching for more effective and safer methods of energy conservation.




Episode I: A New Hope
After the Second World War, amidst the ruins of Europe's major cities, the reconstruction of destroyed buildings gave rise to external façade thermal insulation systems using mineral wool or polystyrene foam. Scientific calculations confirmed the advantages of these new insulation systems.
One would hope for complete safety or a sufficiently long service life for these materials, but no one could say so with certainty. For this reason, these materials did not find widespread use in façade insulation, despite certain hopes placed upon them. However, the energy crisis of the 1970s, when energy savings became a top priority, rekindled interest in external thermal insulation.
It's interesting to note that during this period, in the context of the competitive struggle for space between the two superpowers, both NASA (USA) laboratories and secret projects of the USSR Ministry of Defense were conducting research to create prototype new insulators: liquid thermal insulation. This information is publicly available on the American space corporation's website, www.nasa.gov, but accessing Soviet archives is more difficult.
Episode II: The Empire Doesn't Strike Back
In the late '90s, Russia saw the expansion of a new type of thermal insulation material with a "cosmic" history, collectively known as "liquid thermal insulation." The original technology was initially brought from the US to Ukraine, but it soon found its way to Russia. There, domestic liquid insulation developments, previously classified, were pulled from the archives of Soviet military laboratories. In Ukraine, the Americans themselves inadvertently helped create analogues by making a tactical mistake: they partially revealed the composition and production technology of their liquid insulators.
Using a "Chinese marketing" system, enterprising Ukrainian manufacturers simply copied the technology, substituting all the American raw materials with cheaper analogues. They cleverly leveraged the already popular American brand name for their own benefit. The original US material was quickly pushed out of the market by the Ukrainian clone, which was four times cheaper but had an almost identical name. Although the Ukrainian clone was of lower quality (since the technology and composition were only partially revealed), it found its consumers in Ukraine. And in Russia, the meaning of the Western saying, "We're not rich enough to buy cheap things," hadn't fully sunk in yet.
Meanwhile, during Russia's shift toward domestic producers, the Ukrainian material relocated one of its bottling plants to Belgorod, giving the foreign product a Russian status. Then, in a twist of karmic fate, the Ukrainians experienced what their American counterparts had: some clever Russians soon cloned the Ukrainian material as well.
Nevertheless, this was the first serious attempt by a liquid thermal insulator to enter the domain of the mineral wool and polystyrene foam empire.
Missing such an event would have been a serious mistake, but the empire was preoccupied with infighting and a competitive war for large orders. Localized counterattacks may have occurred, but history remains silent on them. Instead, there are many interesting documents from the late '90s and early 2000s that confirm the thermal properties and praise the new liquid insulator from various manufacturers.
These documents include those from serious institutions like NII SF (Research Institute of Building Physics), complete with appended acts, protocols, and scientific conclusions. Some liquid insulation brands even received a technical certificate from Gosstroy (the State Committee for Construction), although manufacturers later decided they could bypass this procedure, which was mandatory for ventilated facade systems.
The moment for a counter-attack by mineral wool and polystyrene foam representatives was missed, and the paints filled with ceramic microspheres containing rarefied gas (vacuum) inside, having faced no worthy resistance, began to build up their "military might."

Episode III: The Return
Anyone who remembers the summer of 2006 will recall the shortage of extruded polystyrene foam, which was also quite expensive at the time. But for the following year, 2007, everyone expected overproduction. This was particularly true as every small manufacturer, by opening a small regional factory, was contributing to "making the market" alongside other small-scale operations. It's worth noting that this overproduction soon affected not just thermal insulation materials but the entire global economy.
Prior to this period, producing polystyrene foam was one of the most attractive investment projects. With an investment of just $1 million, the project's payback point was reached in just 10-12 months. The market was growing at a rapid pace, up to 50% per year.
In principle, there was enough room for everyone: for giants like "Penoplex" and "Technonikol," and for small regional producers. German and Chinese machinery manufacturers reliably served all Russian thermal insulation producers. And the potential of the Russian thermal insulation market was simply enormous.
And as is common on the stock exchange, one of the large retail chains, created by bold and adventurous people, gave the order: "Sell insulation, no matter the price!" Thus, a price war was the first offensive by a group of manufacturers in the battle for the market. The strategy was quite simple: find a construction project and drive out competitors with a low price, even if that price was clearly unprofitable.
In any civilized market, competitors would have long ago reached an agreement. But the Russian market had only recently shed its crimson blazers and hidden its gold chains under Italian suits. A market of personalities still flourished here, and for the sake of ambition or a false image, some were willing to take excessive risks and bet their entire business. The thirst for absolute power and big money is always exhilarating. So, they didn't reach an agreement.
The next attack was informational, where competitors literally drowned each other in all sorts of accusations, and in experienced hands, PR methods are capable of inflicting long-lasting wounds and blackening the reputation of even the most powerful opponent.
For example, at one point, Smolensk was gripped by the news that a well-known beer contained... E. coli. And competitors profited for a long time from the fourfold drop in sales of the popular beverage.
The thermal insulation war was no exception. Manufacturers sued each other, accused one another of plagiarism and copyright infringement, calculated who was shortchanging the number of polystyrene foam boards in a box, and used other, no less destructive attacks.
But as per the laws of competitive struggle, the victory was won by... the end consumer. Once terribly expensive and scarce thermal insulation materials began to be sold at a price below cost. Manufacturers were working on the brink of profitability.
Naturally, the quality of the material deteriorated significantly. Small-scale productions went bust, unable to withstand the battle in this thermal insulation war. The famous "URSA" brought in a production line for extrusion but didn't dare to launch it at that time.
Incidentally, it was during this period that some entrepreneurs who had invested capital in polystyrene foam production lines and soon went bankrupt in the battle of the giants are now actively selling liquid thermal insulation. Some might be surprised by this transition, as there are other materials like mineral wool. But as they say, once burned, twice shy.
But let's return to our polystyrene foam disputes. In 2008, another "Repin" painting, "They didn't expect it," was "painted" when the global financial crisis struck. It was during this period that liquid thermal insulation made an active comeback, and several brands—American, Ukrainian, and Russian—entered the market battle simultaneously.

Episode IV: The Phantom Menace
Some analysts call 2009 the beginning of the end for the polystyrene foam era. The name of the nightclub "The Lame Horse" became a household name, firmly linking the material in the consumer's mind with its harmful effects on safety, health, and even human life. A serious downturn in construction followed, and a whole campaign against polystyrene foam began in some media outlets. And to be honest, this campaign was actively supported by producers of other thermal insulation materials. It was in this year that the general public learned that polystyrene foam is a component of napalm, which was used in the Vietnam War.
Older people remember the TV reports about American air attacks using napalm. It's hard to forget the photos from that time—the jungle engulfed in black smoke and a running girl with burning napalm on her body. We saw a similar scene on TV channels: people escaping from the burning premises of "The Lame Horse" being rescued. In total, 234 people were affected by that fire, including 156 fatalities, 45 of whom died later in hospitals.
In addition, central TV channels broadcast reports about the harm of black mold and about homes insulated with polystyrene foam where the walls were then eaten away by fungus. Scientists talked about the material's toxicity to blood and the liver and the great harm of phenol and styrene vapors to expectant mothers.
This episode of the thermal insulation wars can be characterized as intense competition, but this time between different materials. While earlier, large polystyrene foam manufacturers had captured the market and attacked each other, this time, the attacks on polystyrene foam were carried out by mineral wool lobbyists.
And subsequently, information began to appear in some media outlets and on the internet, pointing to the danger of another material: mineral wool. The video titled "DUST" alone is telling, showing how mineral wool particles less than 5 microns in size penetrate from the insulation layer through "breathing" walls into rooms and hang in the air. The video directly suggests that mineral wool manufacturers should honestly indicate on their packaging (like on cigarettes) that their product causes cancer.
It's important to note that it was during this time that a new material, liquid thermal insulation, made a mass entry into the market. In every major city, and in almost every region, 3-4 representatives of various heat-reflective paints appeared. Some of the manufacturers had certificates, hundreds of positive reviews, recommendations from design institutes, and offered convincing video and photo reports. In addition to the ease of application (just like painting a surface), manufacturers highlighted the new insulator's long service life, environmental safety, harmlessness to health, and fire safety.
The traditional materials market did not expect this, and polystyrene foam and mineral wool manufacturers clearly did not account for this competitor in their business plans. A completely different fighter and an entirely new material entered the battlefield, with key advantages: safety, ease of installation, and a reasonable cost.

Episode V: Attack of the Clones
Alas, liquid thermal insulation couldn't quickly and confidently capture its segment of the regional markets in Russia and the CIS. This was due to perfectly objective reasons. As soon as another "smart head" learned the general composition of thermal paint—an acrylic or polymer binder and microspheres—the next idea was to start their own production. After all, demand creates supply, and this was the key factor in the creation of numerous liquid thermal insulation clones.
If in previous episodes we mentioned the minimal investment for producing polystyrene foam ($1 million), in the case of liquid thermal insulation analogues, it only required organizing a primitive "production" for mixing paint and microspheres. In other words, a concrete mixer, cheap paint, and cheap crushed spheres from the nearest thermal power plant ash dumps became the raw materials for producing the analogue. Dozens of basement laboratories and workshops actively started creating liquid thermal insulation clones. The product obtained from such "production" was, of course, significantly inferior in quality to its predecessors, the Ukrainian clones, and had nothing in common with the laboratory samples of liquid thermal insulations from NASA or the USSR Ministry of Defense.
The already mentioned Ukrainian clone of the American product was cloned a second time in Russia in the city of Belgorod, and soon another clone of this material appeared from a new manufacturer in Krasnoyarsk. The materials traditionally included a part of the American manufacturer's name in their own. A little later, other clones appeared, which only changed one letter in the name but differed from the previous sample in their labels, significant weight (over 700 grams per liter), and, of course, a significant reduction in quality.
The scale of the appearance of liquid thermal insulation clones reached colossal proportions. New brands appeared like mushrooms after the rain. Today, in Russia alone, there are more than 20 manufacturers of liquid thermal insulation.
But at the same time, several successful brands also emerged, whose production met the requirements of professional paint and varnish manufacturing. These successful producers of liquid thermal insulation bought high-tech equipment to create a high-quality mixture of acrylic binder and used only imported microspheres. Some manufacturers went further, abandoning the "Ukrainian method" of production. They completely changed the composition of the binder, using raw materials from 3M Corporation, BASF, and other well-known foreign brands.
Other companies created their own laboratories where liquid thermal insulations, in addition to microspheres with the thinnest coating of various metals (silver), included many additional elements and special additives (know-how). Specialists who possessed the compositions and manufacturing technology of more successful liquid insulation samples became the heads of production companies, and their investors and partners began building sales networks using the same "Chinese model" that Technonikol had once tested in Russia.
Now, consumers have the opportunity to choose a material from numerous brands, offering various modifications for different purposes: some for pipelines, others for facades, a third group for winter work, and so on.
Only liquid thermal insulation today provides detailed instructions for application with a brush or an airless sprayer, which allows consumers to choose their own workers or even apply it themselves. Remembering the labor-intensive installation of ventilated facades, one understands the reason for such consumer interest in liquid thermal insulation.

Episode VI: Revenge of the Empire
Meanwhile, news channels in the regions, along with central television, periodically aired reports about an innovative discovery—liquid thermal insulation and its use in housing and communal services. "Kazan students returned from Skolkovo with a victory," was the headline of an internet blog, reporting that the kids had become laureates of the All-Russian Innovation Forum "Russia Forward!" The project that helped the kids win was... "Research and Improvement of Composite Thermal Insulation Coatings Based on Microspheres."
A silent resonance, equivalent to a blow to the gut, was caused among the opponents of the new material by the head of state's speech, broadcast on Channel 1, about the results of his visit to an oil refinery in Chelyabinsk. Dmitry Medvedev said: "Reducing energy losses by maybe 30 percent—just by painting it a little. It's just amazing. You point the device, and one of them is actually cold. It doesn't let anything out. And the second one—you can light a cigarette from it."
Consumers were left confused by such an expansion. Not to mention the major representatives of traditional materials, who experienced conflicting feelings, from simple "disbelief in this mysticism" to the process of understanding the fact that a new opponent had appeared. After all, in one place, liquid thermal insulation was met with consumer enthusiasm, and in another, having apparently encountered another clone, a cool reception. Therefore, manufacturers and sellers of traditional insulators looked at the appearance of liquid insulations as a temporary phenomenon and, in the most drawn-out case, expected loud disputes. But for some reason, the disputes never came.
The empire of mineral wool and polystyrene foam was outraged and thirsted for revenge. Many distributors in cities began actively discussing the topic on various internet forums dedicated to insulators. The slightest mistake by competitors was picked up by a many-voiced echo across the entire internet. It became fashionable for mineral wool or polystyrene foam sellers to have a debunking article about liquid thermal insulations on their websites.
Opponents of liquid thermal insulation stirred up GOSTs and SNiPs, and studied government decrees from the '90s onward to find technical regulations that would create a barrier to liquid thermal insulations entering the country's big market. During this period, debunking documents also appeared—surprisingly, from the same research institutes that had previously confirmed the thermophysical properties of liquid insulations. The research institutes shouldn't be blamed for this; mineral wool and polystyrene foam lobbyists paid well for research, and the institutes needed to survive. Moreover, many institutes had changed leadership, old staff had left, and the main contractors for large projects were mineral wool and polystyrene foam corporations. How can you bite the hand that feeds you?
A similar situation occurred with scientists' research on climate change, where the principle was: if there's money for research, you'll have global warming.
But these scientific institutions cannot be denied their diplomacy either. Almost all the documents floating freely on the internet, launched by various lobbyists, look, to put it mildly, like a "mere scrap of paper." They either contain general conclusions that liquid thermal insulation cannot be used on facades (which brand is unknown) or expose a specific brand name that has long since disappeared from the market.
On the other hand, many conclusions are so absurd that, making an ironic analogy, one could seriously state: "We, the staff of the SHMII Research Institute, have researched glue (of an unknown manufacturer) and have come to the unequivocal conclusion that glues in general are not suitable for gluing. Conclusion: glue doesn't glue." But in the war that had unfolded, such details were completely unimportant.
And the most noticeable blow by the empire to liquid thermal insulations was by no means lawsuits or authoritative commission proceedings, but... a sponsored article in the magazine "Construction Expert" from 2010 with the memorable title "Liquid Thermal Insulation Coatings: The Tale of the Naked King."
Similar articles were picked up and published with minor changes on the empire's websites and in some regional media. The authors of these articles were usually a coordinated group lobbying for the interests of mineral wool or polystyrene foam manufacturers. It's important to note that the signature debunking phrase of the sponsored articles, "But the king is naked!" was by no means shouted by an innocent, honest boy but by a powerful empire of polystyrene foam and mineral wool. The only question is, who did they mean by the word "king"?
But in some cases, the PR attacks on liquid thermal insulation had the opposite effect. It created a kind of advertisement for a material that many builders had not even heard of.
"Wow!" a builder would think, "they're trashing some fantastic insulator, and I'm not even in the loop. I have to try it!"
The important thing is that only liquid thermal insulation offered a safe and easy way to install insulation on a facade surface, and this always attracts both builders and customers. On the other hand, it is important to acknowledge the fact that insulating all the country's old housing stock with polystyrene foam and mineral wool is pure utopia! There will never be enough money in the budget for this. But finding the funds to paint the peeling facades of multi-story residential buildings with a heat-reflective facade paint is both possible and necessary.

Episode VII: A New Hope (Scenario)
If we try to look into the near future, say 3-4 years ahead, it's not just difficult to imagine what awaits us, it's sometimes impossible. Look at how progress is advancing; remember what our mobile phones looked like back in 2005? Feel how the world is changing and how our minds can't keep up with its rapid development.
Today, many people say that the Earth's resources are running out. How many more wars—oil, gas, or software—are yet to come? These battles will definitely be global. But let's hope we only witness marketing attacks, clashes of minds and personalities in this struggle, and never see cities in ruins or hear the roar of tanks or the drone of military aircraft.
At the same time, scientific and technological progress has long been moving in one direction: reducing the consumption of raw materials per unit of production and minimizing the size of all scientific and technological achievements.
Remember what computers, televisions, phones, and cars were like 25-30 years ago? If you still remember the thickness of winter thermal underwear, mentally compare it with the thinnest material of modern thermal clothing.
What can we expect from thermal insulation materials in the near future? Definitely only health safety and minimal coating thickness. Liquid thermal insulations are, in principle, a transitional material, a prototype of a new generation of insulation, and they have prepared a good foundation for a new understanding and a new approach to the insulation of the future.
Studying companies that offer building materials online, you notice that many sellers of mineral wool and polystyrene foam are expanding their product range to include various brands of liquid thermal insulation. This can hardly be called a victory for the new material. But I believe we can speak of a phenomenon where large corporations selling mineral wool and polystyrene foam are still puffing out their chests, while in the trenches along the entire front line, the "fraternization" of old enemies is already underway.
The epilogue of the thermal insulation wars is obvious: it's a truce and joint negotiations between different manufacturers or associations to demarcate territories and areas of application, and to find ways to remove all sorts of unsuccessful liquid thermal insulation clones from the market.
The important thing is that any war always ends with the same thing: negotiations, the division of territories, and a lasting peace. This, along with good health, is what I wish for all our readers.