Firebrand fills a specialized niche of customized rigid polyurethane foam production, cutting, and fabricating.

It is used primarily for insulating piping systems, including complex shapes for pipe bends, tees, elbows, couplings, crosses, valves, tie-ins and more.

Most of our industrial customers need to be able to install our insulation themselves after they’ve assembled the piping system in the field. This is why precision and fit are crucial in our process:

  • Project planning. Taking our customers list of items they wish to insulate we confirm the type of piping system and connection style. For items such as valves and couplers we would also confirm the manufacturer and model to ensure the best fit. Based on this information a design of the finished product is generated and to reduce waste all cuts are carefully laid out. To save time, we create and catalogue CNC drawings for popular fittings and types of pipe. We also stock insulation for some of the most commonly requested fittings and half shells. Should you have a custom shape in mind please contact our office for pricing. 

Here is a list of pipe system types we commonly supply insulation for. (CNC drawings may already be prepared): 

Type of Pipe System Pipe Material Used For
IPS Steel Oil & Gas
IPS HDPE, PVC Water
SDR PVC Waste Water
CTS Copper, HDPE Water
DIPS Cast Iron, HDPE, PVC Waste Water
C900 PVC Water

  • Our raw material. Firebrand uses a proprietary two component liquid chemical formulation that when combined and poured into molds rises like bread to form a rigid closed cell foam. The microscopic air pockets that form in the foam give it a very high R-value (R = 6 to 7 per 1” thickness). Our foam has been designed to have excellent compressive strength and be damage-resistant.
  • Manufacturing our foam. Our chemical mixing and pour machine was specifically engineered to manufacture buns (blocks) of rigid foam. This computer controlled machine ensures a consistent and accurate mix of chemicals to produce our high quality foam. After a 24-hour curing period, the material is structurally stable, and does not warp or curve over time. Producing our own foam assures the quality and gives us the ability to adjust bun size to reduce waste during cutting.
  • Cutting and fabricating. We take our buns (or a customer-supplied material if preferred) and using a CNC fast wire machine cut desired shapes. The CNC machine allows us to maintain accuracy to 1/40,000 of an inch. Insulation for more complex items such as pipe fittings may require combining a number of different shapes to fabricate the finished product. The required shapes are determined in the project planning stage and are held together using a very strong glue.
  • Need it weatherproofed? If you will be using our foam outside or underground, the exterior surface must be coated. We can supply a 35 mil thick tape wrap or shrink sleeves for you to apply after installation of our insulation. For oil and gas pipe bends we offer in house application of corrosion barrier, insulation and outer wrap. Currently the outer wrap would be either 35 mil Renwrap tape or Canusa K-60 shrink sleeves. We can also offer perfect fit, pre-fabricated sheet metal insulation jacketing (via subcontract.)