GF Building Flow Solutions at ISH 2025: a powerful offering fueled with market-driven innovations combining the best from GF and Uponor

“We have committed ourselves to step up in the industry, accelerating improvements leading us toward a more sustainable future,” says Michael Rauterkus, President GF Building Flow Solutions. “Within the last 15 months of being part of GF, we have seen many synergy opportunities to re-invent ourselves: in technology, production, category management, and commercial. We have channeled our innovation roadmaps in one direction to provide solutions for making buildings future-proof, safer, and more comfortable. Our combined portfolio addresses challenging customer needs: providing water hygiene, enabling the transition to green buildings, accelerating services with Artificial Intelligence integration and prefabrication.”

Uponor has a strong track record in advancing sustainable innovations in the industry. This continued in 2023 as the company achieved industry firsts recognition in its sustainability work. Uponor produced the world’s first bio-based PEX pipe¹. The company’s “Carbon Neutral Factory” concept highlights the efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its own operations. “As part of GF, we have the power to accelerate our journey as global leader in sustainable flow solutions,” says Thomas Fuhr, Chief Technology Officer, GF Building Flow Solutions. “The most recent example is the GF Hakan Plastik production facility in Türkiye which reached carbon-neutrality in January 2025 another milestone result in GF’s carbon neutral journey. These achievements make it possible to further elevate our research, development, and manufacturing operations to centers of excellence.”

The innovations presented at ISH are developed to make buildings better with resiliency, performance, and sustainability in focus. “At the Capital Markets Day back in 2022, Uponor promised to make innovation a key strategic pillar for customer success. We are excited to bring the result of team dedication, collaboration, expanded technology footprint, and resources to life at ISH,” says Michael Rauterkus.

Water hygiene innovations

More comfort, less water waste: no more waiting for hot water
The new Combi Port E-Hybrid flat station (HIU) represents the next generation of drinking water hygiene solution for low temperature systems, finally solving the common problem occurring especially in multi-family homes: the waiting time for the hot water to arrive. Incorporating an electrical booster on the heating side, it features higher tapping rates of 15 l/min compared to standard tapping rates of
9 l/min with lower supply pressures. The demand-based hot water supply reduces stagnation to a minimum, significantly decreasing the risk of legionella. On-demand hot water supply reduces energy consumption. The high degree of industrial prefabrication and quality ensures time savings in the planning and implementation phase.

Automated flow monitoring with GF Hycleen Balance
The new digital GF Hycleen Balance valve solves the issue of uneven hot water distribution within buildings, as it accurately and efficiently distributes and documents how the hot water flows across the building based on the stagnation time and temperature. This facilitates regulatory compliance and is easy to operate digitally e.g. via smart phones with plug & play commissioning​ and building management system integration. GF Hycleen Balance is the ideal solution when legionella infection prevention is mandatory and critical where legionella presents a serious threat.

Green buildings innovations

Direct tiling radiant heating solution: up to 40 % faster installation
The Uponor Siccus 16 dry underfloor radiant heating system allows direct flooring on the EPS board, eliminating several steps in installation. At the same time, its low installation height of just 20 mm and lightweight construction makes it a real problem-solver in the renovation sector, where installers often face three key challenges: limited installation height, complex assembly, and floor load restrictions. “The new energy directive is clear, the demand to upgrade and extend the lifetime of existing buildings requires improved solutions,” says Thomas Fuhr. “On top of being a problem-solver, Uponor Siccus 16 provides optimal heating performance within only 20 minutes and is the ideal complement to low-temperature heat sources such as heat pumps.”

Fourth generation Ecoflex VIP provides 70 % smaller jacket size
EU’s ambitious sustainability and decarbonization goals require more energy and cost-efficient installations for local and district heating. However, installation complexity slows down the development of alternative high-performance solutions. The fourth generation of Ecoflex VIP pipes features a 70 % smaller jacket size while reducing the heat loss up to 60 % (comparison with similar jacket size/heat loss with PE insulation​). “Ecoflex VIP already combines the best heat loss performance and flexibility for foam insulated pipes. Now we introduce a high-flexible version, tailored to medium to large sized local heat distribution network applications, where the pipe size reduction is critical,” says Thomas Fuhr. “This ongoing evolution is a result of learning from advanced technologies in other fields such as aerospace, where the Vacuum Insulated Panels are also used.”

Artificial Intelligence innovations

Next step of intelligence – welcoming AI into radiant controls 

Regulations for more energy efficient buildings have increased the use of insulation materials in constructions, making radiant heating systems less responsive. With Artificial Intelligence integrated into the latest Smatrix control for underfloor heating systems, it enables fast response, keeping the building at ideal temperatures throughout seasons. Based on weather changes, room temperature factors, and user preferences, the solution predicts, adapts, optimizes, and seamlessly connects with leading heat pump models. The cloud-to-cloud connectivity ensures a fast set-up of the system without complex wiring, installation, or additional hardware.

EcoMate can provide 30 % energy savings at 0 % risk
GF Building Flow Solutions’ new business model EcoMate is a 24/7 heat source management, combining intelligent software and IoT sensors upgrading buildings to save 30 % energy. The majority of older buildings are equipped with fossil heating systems with high energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. “Real estate value quickly becomes a financial risk when building emissions are not in line with new rules and regulations,” says Thomas Fuhr. “Available energy monitoring and optimization solutions are normally linked to high entry and running cost. With EcoMate, targeting light commercial buildings, we want to lower this entry barrier. No hardware investment will be needed as sensors and software are provided.” Savings are achieved through weather forecasting and real-time building occupancy insights, monitored via energy usage patterns. The solution is brought to the market with a contracting service fee based on shared cost savings. “Launching EcoMate at ISH with focus on Germany, we look forward to further develop the concept in partnership with real estate and asset managers, as well as building owners,” adds Thomas Fuhr.

Modular and prefabricated innovations

I-Shower: setting a new standard of shower installation and design experience
At ISH, GF Building Flow Solutions presents a new hot and cold-water supply solution to the industry. “With the I-Shower concept, we re-engineer the HIU unit to prepare the right temperature within the Uponor Combi Port cabinet. This does not only eliminate the tile drilling for the conventional mixer but also results in only one pipe per shower outlet instead of two pipes. This reduces significantly the complexity of digital shower installations and the mounting time by 50 %,” says Thomas Fuhr. “Using a high-design digital control unit gives freedom in shower space layout.” The I-Shower concept carries memory functions for different user profiles and ensures desired water temperature just by pushing the button. “I look forward to experience customers reactions to the I-Shower concept, where the ‘I’ clearly stands for Installer-readiness, Individual shower comfort, Ideal design, and Intuitive operation. I truly believe it can become Iconic.”
 

¹ with ISCC certification, based on the mass balance approach