Laminated sheets particularly for cryogenic enclosures, pipes, and the like

A laminated sheet material particularly adapted for use in conjunction with a heat-insulating material of a cryogenic enclosure or pipe for receiving a cold fluid such as liquified natural gas, methane, or the like, said laminated sheet material comprising at least three but not more than four layers secured to each other for defining between themselves a pair of interfaces situated respectively between two of said layers and a third, intermediate layer, the latter intermediate layer being in the form of a thin, flexible metal sheet forming a fluid-impervious film, skin, or foil the material of which is selected from the group consisting of aluminum, stainless steel, and Invar, while one of said two layers at one of said interfaces is a flexible glass-fiber fabric while being only thick enough to protect and support said metallic layer and provide a secure connection to a heat-insulating material, the other of said two layers at the other interface being selected from the group consisting of said glass-fiber fabric and a fluid-tight elastomeric material only thick enough to directly contact a cold fluid while protecting said metallic layer, said elastomeric material being selected from the group consisting of a polyurethane elastomer and a silicon elastomer, said intermediate metallic layer being thinner than the other two layers and all three layers together having a total thickness small enough to achieve sufficient flexibility to serve as a primary or secondary sealing barrier in a cryogenic enclosure or as an inner lining or outer wrapping in a cryogenic pipe when used in connection with a heat-insulating material of such an enclosure or pipe, while the other of said two layers also cooperates with said metallic layer and said one glass-fiber fabric layer to afford sufficient resilience and yieldability to transmit forces through said three laminated layers to the heat-insulating material without minimizing the fluid-imperviousness of said metallic layer.