SEPTEMBER 2019 | 33
Products
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
TITANS OF TAPE HELPING
TRANSFORM BRITAIN’S BUILDINGS
In 2005, two of the world’s biggest sealant manufacturers joined forces.
The result was tremco-illbruck, now the unchallenged leader in the
field. Product Manager David Naylor charts the company’s rise
– and lays out its mission to make British buildings some of the
warmest, quietest and most thermally efficient in the world.
1928. 1952. 2005. Three
years, in three totally different
eras, that, for most people, have
absolutely nothing in common.
But for tremco-illbruck, they
were major milestones in our
history.
In 1928, Alexander Fleming
discovered penicillin, Mickey
Mouse appeared on film for the
first time – and, in Cleveland
Ohio, William C. Treuhaft started
the Treuhaft Manufacturing
Company.
Treuhaft specialised in making
sealants, protective coatings and
weatherproofing products, and his
business grew quickly. By the ‘50s,
it was America’s biggest manufac-
turer of industrial maintenance
solutions, with 250 in its range.
Something else had changed,
too. Treuhaft Manufacturing
Company had been abbreviated to
Tremco.
But at around the same time,
across the Atlantic another busi-
ness was coming to life.
In 1952, Elizabeth II became
Queen, the UK’s first ever Singles
Chart was published – and West
German industrialist Willi Illbruck
founded the Illbruck company.
With the West German econ-
omy booming as its post-war
recovery gathered pace, Willi’s
new business initially set about
manufacturing dies for making
steel wool.
But as time went on, it gradually
diversified into other areas, includ-
ing the one that would eventually
make its name – sealants.
And in 2005, the year of Live
8 and the birth of YouTube, the
Tremco and Illbruck were brought
together by RPM International,
a construction materials special-
ist with 14,500 employees in 26
countries, to create tremco-il-
lbruck.
In the years since, armed with
the combined expertise of both
businesses, and backed by the
huge resources of RPM, we’ve
made massive strides in helping
modernise construction.
And one of the areas we’ve
had the most impact is window
installation. For decades, most of
the UK’s windows have been fitted
with silicone. It’s two biggest sell-
ing points are that it’s inexpensive,
and it’s easy to use – you point
the gun, and pull the trigger.
But it also comes
with a whole host of drawbacks.
It’s a poor insulator, for one thing
– typically offering U-Values of 2.6
or worse (Passivhaus is 0.7). And
over time, silicone goes hard.
Any movement between the
window and the frame can cause
tiny micro-cracks in the silicone,
resulting in the sort of air and
water leakage which seriously
compromises the unit’s thermal
efficiency, and, eventually, leads to
more serious complications.
In recent years, tremco-illbruck
has been at the forefront of attempts
to encourage installers to adopt an
alternative - impregnated tape.
In essence, it’s a compressed
foam insulating seal. Once you re-
move the backing paper, the tape
steadily expands to effectively seal
all gaps and spaces between the
frame and wall.
And we’ve developed impreg-
nated tape products for virtually
any application. TP600 Comprib-
and was arguably the original
article – one of the very first
impregnated joint-sealing instal-
lation tapes to deliver twenty-first
century performance. It was an
outstanding product then, and it
still is today.
If you need flawless airtightness,
there’s TP653 (to be launched at
FIT Show 2019), capable of help-
ing a building achieve Passivhaus
standard.
And if you need a product that
excels across the board, there’s
TP652 Trio Plus, which delivers
industry-leading weather-tight-
ness, air-tightness and thermal and
acoustic insulation.
That’s down to its patented Step
technology – an extra grey layer
that delivers more foam on the in-
side of the joint, equalling higher
compression and superb all-round
performance.
In TP652 LL, there’s even a
version that’s quicker and easier
to apply, thanks to a liner-less
self-adhesive.
At tremco-illbruck, our mission
is to help window installers offer
their customers the very best
thermal and acoustic performance,
and help British buildings become
warmer and quieter than ever
before.
www.tremco-illbruck.com