Healthcare Facilities
Insulation solutions that save energy and support patient comfort, safety and recovery
Ensuring operational reliability and comfort
When it comes to healthcare facilities, there is no margin for error. Equipment needs to be reliably in operation 24/7 and indoor air quality (IAQ) needs to be comfortable at all times. Armacell’s fibre-free and closed-cell insulation solutions support healthcare facilities while enhancing energy and cost efficiency, fire safety, indoor air quality, acoustic comfort and sustainability.
Ensuring energy efficiency, fire safety and acoustic comfort
Watch the video to discover how our technical insulation solutions go BEYOND BETTER by offering energy efficiency, acoustic comfort, fire safety and supporting sustainable construction for healthcare facilities.
Comfortable and energy-efficient healthcare facilities
Hospitals are the most complex of building types and highly energy intensive. The global healthcare sector accounts for 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and the energy demand per hospital bed is greater than that of a single-family house. This is due to high space heating, cooling and ventilation loads, continuous operation for the majority of its facilities, and the high quantity of medical equipment. State-of-the-art insulation of mechanical equipment is one of the most efficient and easiest ways to save energy in hospitals. Healthcare facilities must consider everything from operational reliability, indoor air quality and thermal comfort, to acoustic design and sustainability.
Save energy in critical infrastructure
A hospital uses more than twice as much energy as any other public building. The need to sustain around-the-clock operational reliability makes healthcare facilities complex, with pipes and air ducts that traverse throughout the entire building to supply fresh air, cold and warm water, and dispose waste-water. In addition to air conditioning hospital rooms, chilled water ensures the stability of medical-technical systems, temperature-sensitive medicines and IT areas. HVAC systems account for 50 percent of the energy demand of a hospital making energy efficiency and prevention of energy loss essential to daily operations. Tapping the significant potential for energy savings in new and existing healthcare facilities brings benefits in terms of lower energy costs and decreased CO2 emissions. Armacell's thermal insulation solutions are fibre-free with extremely low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and support LEED®, BREEAM® GREENGUARD and DNGB certification goals
Benefit from built-in antimicrobial product protection
Poor indoor air quality may lead to hospital-acquired infections, sick hospital syndrome and various occupational hazards. Excess moisture in combination with dust and dirt particles provides an ideal breeding ground for microbial growth. Plus, hospitals and nursing homes are susceptible to legionella infections: patients or residents are sensitive to infection, and plumbing systems are frequently complex allowing bacteria to multiply. Our closed-cell insulation materials protect hot and cold water pipes against unacceptable temperature fluctuations reducing the risk of legionella contaminations. For an added peace of mind, Armacell is the only manufacturer of flexible technical insulation materials to provide its premium products with built-in Microban® antimicrobial protection. Microban antimicrobial chemistries work continuously within the molecular structure of premium ArmaFlex® products, creating an inhospitable environment for microbes to grow and multiply. Product protection begins to work as soon as a microorganism comes into contact with a product surface and the Microban antimicrobial protection penetrates the cell wall of the microorganism, disrupting the cell and making the microorganism unable to grow and reproduce. The antimicrobial additive technology is built-in, does not wash off or wear away, and will continually inhibit potentially harmful microbes that make contact with the surface of the product The antimicrobial protection works continuously to maintain a consistently lower bio-burden than would be expected on a product without Microban protection.
Make fire safety a top priority
If a fire breaks out in a hospital the threat to life and health is much greater than in other public buildings. Nowhere else is it as difficult to evacuate a building as in care and nursing facilities. In addition to employees and visitors, vulnerable patients with restricted mobility have to be taken to safety. Setting a new safety benchmark, ArmaFlex® Ultima, powered by the patented ArmaPreneTM technology, outperforms standard elastomers, exhibiting ten times less smoke alongside excellent flame resistance. Incorporating passive firestop measures into hospital planning is pivotal for safeguarding against the spread of fire and minimising smoke density for a safe evacuation. Our ArmaFlex Protect and ArmaProtect® systems feature firestop components that seal pipe penetrations in fire-resistant walls and floors, effectively containing fire and diminishing the spread of smoke within the building. By integrating these advanced insulation and firestop solutions, engineers and planners fortify healthcare facilities, ensuring a safer, more secure environment for all.
Prevent unwanted noises from disturbing rest and recovery
High-tech medical equipment, alarms, televisions, rattling trolleys, ringing phones, and conversations between visitors, staff and patients – healthcare facilities are extremely noisy places. They exceed World Health Organiazation (WHO) guideline values of 35 dB(A) during the day and 30 dB(A) at night. The soundscape of care facilities is of crucial importance since it affects the wellbeing of patients or residents and caregivers. Noise from physical vibration of materials and equipment lead to structure-borne and air-borne noise. This airborne-to-structure-borne conversion can repeat multiple times until the sound source stops. Armacell’s acoustic solutions enable superior noise reduction performance with thinner thicknesses, enabling space savings for system design.