Insulation microspheres and method of manufacture

Abstract

Evacuated microspheres, insulating materials constructed from such microspheres, and methods of manufacturing same provide insulation and reduce heat transfer through radiation, conduction and convection. Additionally, an infrared reflective coating is provided on a microsphere surface to reduce radiant heat transfer. A protective exterior coating is also provided to protect an exteriorly applied infrared reflective coating on such a microsphere. Furthermore, the spheroidal geometry of such microspheres restricts heat transfer to point-to-point conduction therebetween. Finally, evacuated microspheres further reduce through-heat transfer within a shell. One embodiment utilizes such evacuated microspheres in constructing an elastomeric roof coating which appreciably reduces cooling and air conditioning power costs for a building. An alternative embodiment utilizes such an elastomeric coating in constructing an exterior paint for a building. A method of evacuating such microspheres involves in-permeation of selected gases within a microsphere which reacts under sufficiently high temperatures with residual gases within the microsphere to produce by-product gases which out-permeate from within the sphere under sufficiently high temperatures. Furthermore, a method of constructing suitable glass microspheres which are suitable for evacuating via out-permeation is also described.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.