Thermal insulation products and production of thermal insulation products
AssigneeNanopore, Inc.
InventorDouglas M. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods of making thermal insulation products that may be usable to provide insulation in high temperature applications. One method includes sealing a support material (e.g., a nanoporous core such as fumed silica, an aerogel powder, etc.) and at least one vapor within an interior portion of a substantially gas-impermeable envelope (e.g., a metallic and/or polymeric film), and then condensing at least a portion of the vapor after the sealing step to reduce the pressure within the gas-impermeable envelope from a first pressure before the condensing to a lower second pressure after the condensing. The disclosed methods limit or eliminate the need for pumping mechanisms to draw the vacuum within the products, drying of the core before the sealing, and the like.
Claims60
A method for making a thermal insulation product, the method comprising the steps of:
- sealing a support material and a vapor within an interior portion of a substantially gas-impermeable envelope, wherein the interior portion of the gas-impermeable envelope is at a first pressure during this sealing step, wherein the vapor has a boiling point under ambient pressure that is different than the boiling point of water under ambient pressure;
- and
- condensing at least a portion of the vapor from the gaseous phase to a liquid phase after the sealing step to reduce the first pressure within the gas-impermeable envelope to a second pressure that is less than the first pressure.
A method for making a thermal insulation product, the method comprising the steps of:
- sealing a support material and a vapor within an interior portion of a substantially gas-impermeable envelope, wherein the interior portion of the gas-impermeable envelope is at a first pressure during this sealing step, wherein the vapor has a boiling point under ambient pressure that is greater than the boiling point of water under ambient pressure;
- and
- condensing at least a portion of the vapor from the gaseous phase to a liquid phase after the sealing step to reduce the first pressure within the gas-impermeable envelope to a second pressure that is less than the first pressure, the condensing step comprising cooling the vapor to a temperature that is below the boiling point of the vapor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.