Bonded Logic Factory Tour in Chandler, Arizona (live fom Greenbuild)

I've gotta say, I love visiting factories, especially those that make products I've been writing about for years. I just toured Bonded Logic's Chandler, Arizona plant, 20 minutes outside of Phoenix, where each month the company converts 300 tons of post-industrial recycled denim and other cotton fabric into the UltraTouch line of cotton insulation, sound-proofing materials, duct insulation, and related products. I never knew there was so much I didn't know about cotton insulation! Liz Obloy, the publisher of Sustainable Facility magazine, and I saw the manufacturing process first hand, from the bales of incoming raw materials to the packaging of finished product. This plant gets the cotton after it's already been fiberized — broken down into the constituent fibers. Bales of polyester and polyolefin "binder" fibers that give the material loft also come into the plant. The fiberized cotton is treated with a borate solution to make it resistant to fire, mold, mildew, and pests. All the fibers are then mixed in huge bins and a wide conveyor belt of these loose fibers then pass through gas-fired "bonding ovens" where the material is heated to about 350 degrees F. In the oven, the bonding fibers are activated in a way that holds the fibers together to produce batt insulation or higher-density sound-control panels. From there, the batts and panels are cooled and cut on a conveyor belt, then packaged — all steps of which may sound rather mundane, but I found fascinating. Ever wonder how they squeeze insulation bats to fit into those plastic bags?; it's fun to watch! All of the waste at the plant is captured and returned to the process. Along with producing batt insulation, Bonded Logic makes a wide range of other products. I was surprised to see a production line devoted to producing fairly high-density sound-isolation panels for those really quiet Bosch dishwashers — like the one we have in our BuildingGreen office. Bonded Logic products are not cheap. Our tour guide Jerry Weston, Bonded Logic's sales and marketing manager, told us about one customer who had reluctantly dropped their purchases of Bonded Logic products because of the higher cost, compared with fiberglass. A couple months later, they came back. The company's employees had rebelled, complaining about headaches, respiratory ailments, and other problems since the switch, and the company decided to deal with the higher costs to keep their staff happy. Neat product. Cool factory! You can follow more of my musings on Twitter.