9360931 Henderson The potential to achieve high insulating value by the use of evacuated glass microspheres has been know for some time. The purpose of the research is to solve the principal obstacle to their use, which has been the development of a commercially viable technique to produce evacuated microspheres. If hollow glass microspheres can be evacuated and coated cost effectively their utility as insulation will extend to the consumer, engineering and industrial markets with attendant large cost savings to these users and major energy savings to the nation. For example, using vacuum microspheres having highly reflective metal coatings, systems can be designed with R values greater than 800 have been achieved. The objective of the research is to demonstrate a unique manufacturing concept which does not require the use of vacuum equipment or evacuated chambers. A new, cost effective, environmentally benign insulation has enormous commercial potential by virtue of the improvement in a wide variety of products: e.g., dewars, refrigerated trucks and rail cars, home appliances such as ovens and refrigerators, foam insulation, pipe insulation, vehicles, cryogenic fuel containers and packaging.
