Kaylo was a high-temperature block and pipe insulation line originally developed by Owens-Illinois and sold to Owens-Corning Fiberglas in 1958. In addition to pipe covering, the Kaylo line included allegedly molded asbestos-cement equipment insulation forms — pre-shaped block segments contoured to fit around valves, flanges, elbows, tees, pumps, and vessel heads. Plaintiffs have alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that insulators who cut, rasped, drilled, and fitted these Kaylo equipment forms inhaled respirable asbestos fibers released from the calcium silicate and asbestos-cement matrix.

Product Description

Kaylo equipment insulation forms were allegedly molded from a calcium silicate and Portland cement composite reinforced with chrysotile asbestos and, in the earlier production era, substantial amosite asbestos fiber content. Where the flat Kaylo block and cylindrical Kaylo pipe covering handled straight-run insulation, the equipment forms handled the geometrically complex fittings and equipment that pipe systems and vessels required.

The equipment-form product line allegedly included:

  • Molded valve covers for gate, globe, and check valves
  • Preformed flange rings for bolted pipe joints
  • Elbow, tee, and reducer sections contoured to standard fitting geometry
  • Pump housing and vessel-head insulation forms
  • Custom block segments for turbines, heat exchangers, and process equipment

The forms were supplied to industrial construction and maintenance contractors serving power plants, refineries, chemical plants, paper mills, steel mills, ships, and other high-temperature process environments where insulators were tasked with covering irregular equipment surfaces.

Workers Exposed

Plaintiffs have alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that the following trades encountered respirable asbestos dust from Kaylo equipment insulation forms:

  • Insulators (asbestos workers) who selected molded Kaylo valve, flange, and fitting covers, then rasped, filed, and sawed the block to fit specific equipment. Cutting Kaylo generated a characteristic white dust that plaintiffs have alleged clung to workers’ clothing and was inhaled throughout the workday.
  • Pipefitters and boilermakers who worked alongside insulators on hot-work jobs, allegedly inhaling airborne fiber released during Kaylo fitting operations in the same equipment room.
  • Maintenance mechanics and millwrights who stripped weathered Kaylo equipment insulation to service the underlying valves and vessels — breaking dry, aged block and releasing fibers as the cement matrix crumbled.
  • Power plant and refinery operators who worked in mechanical rooms and process areas while Kaylo equipment forms were being cut, applied, or stripped by insulator crews.
  • Shipyard insulators who allegedly used Kaylo forms in engine-room and boiler-room installations aboard commercial and Navy vessels, working in confined machinery spaces with limited ventilation.
  • Demolition and abatement workers who removed decades-old Kaylo equipment insulation during plant decommissioning, generating substantial fiber release from friable, deteriorated block.

Plaintiffs have alleged that Kaylo’s amosite content in the pre-1958 through mid-1960s production era made the material a particularly hazardous exposure source, and that dry-fitting practices — rasping, filing, and sawing block on the equipment platform — were standard insulator practice.