Lightweight aggregate. Made from recycled glass. Multiple applications.

GLAVEL is a foam glass gravel that is manufactured from cleaned, recycled glass. GLAVEL is produced by grinding recycled glass shards into powder and then mixing with a foaming agent. The mixture is deposited on a mesh that slowly passes through a furnace. The powdered glass is heated to a temperature of 1650°F, which causes the glass powder to foam into a mass of 9.4 lbs./cf – 150kg/m3. It then cools and hardens into foam glass. The final product has a closed cell structure and has a compressive strength above 40PSI. As the foam glass tumbles off the conveyor it breaks up into smaller pieces and the result is foam glass gravel. Glavel transforms municipal waste glass into a sub-slab insulation material and high-grade aggregate.

As a load-bearing, thermal insulating substrate under a slab, glass foam offers a combination of properties that no other material can offer. GLAVEL replaces the aggregate layer (drainage/capillary break under slabs), the frost barriers and provides thermal insulation from the soil. This provides a simple, thermal bridge-free soil structure for a thermally separated slab in one step.

The ultra-lightweight attribute of GLAVEL, is the greatest value proposition of this product in a green roof application. This allows the landscape architects to make undulations in their green roof projects without putting a large and costly burden on the structure below. Furthermore, it is easier to shape into place than EPS foam and can be used as thermally insulating underlay for a green roof.

Foam glass gravel can also be used for road construction on unstable ground (marshy ground, permafrost, or marginal zones), road embankments, airport runways and tunnels that require light weight aggregate. Benefits from GLAVEL’s properties are ideal for fill around pipelines to provide stabilization and insulation.