Shaping of thermal insulation material
AssigneeMicropore International Limited
InventorJoseph A. McWilliams
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to the formation of a protective skin on blocks of microporous thermal insulation material. Such material is difficult to protect because the securement of a protective layer by some form of adhesive securement provides only a relatively loose bond. According to the invention, a laser beam is used to fuse a surface layer of particles in the material to form a protective skin. The beam may be passed over an otherwise "raw" edge of a block of material, or used also to cut the block from a workpiece while simultaneously forming the skin. This enables the cutting of accurate shapes either by manual or automatic control of the passage of the beam through the workpiece, the latter much facilitating mass production of relatively complicated shapes.
Claims8
A method of shaping a block of microporous thermal insulation material comprising silica-aerogel particles while simultaneously forming a protective skin on said material, said method comprising cutting the desired shape from a workpiece using a laser beam, wherein the laser beam is directed at the workpiece so as to cut the workpiece and simultaneously to generate intense heat sufficient to fuse the silica-aerogel particles at the surface of the cut edge, thereby forming a thin, substantially continuous protective skin at the cut edge of the shaped block.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.