Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04B—GENERAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS; WALLS, e.g. PARTITIONS; ROOFS; FLOORS; CEILINGS; INSULATION OR OTHER PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS
  • E04B1/00—Constructions in general; Structures which are not restricted either to walls, e.g. partitions, or floors or ceilings or roofs
  • E04B1/62—Insulation or other protection; Elements or use of specified material therefor
  • E04B1/74—Heat, sound or noise insulation, absorption, or reflection; Other building methods affording favourable thermal or acoustical conditions, e.g. accumulating of heat within walls
  • E04B1/76—Heat, sound or noise insulation, absorption, or reflection; Other building methods affording favourable thermal or acoustical conditions, e.g. accumulating of heat within walls specifically with respect to heat only
  • E04B1/78—Heat insulating elements
  • E04B1/80—Heat insulating elements slab-shaped
  • E04B1/803—Heat insulating elements slab-shaped with vacuum spaces included in the slab
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29C—SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING
  • B29C53/00—Shaping by bending, folding, twisting, straightening or flattening; Apparatus therefor
  • B29C53/02—Bending or folding
  • B29C53/04—Bending or folding of plates or sheets
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29C—SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING
  • B29C53/00—Shaping by bending, folding, twisting, straightening or flattening; Apparatus therefor
  • B29C53/02—Bending or folding
  • B29C53/04—Bending or folding of plates or sheets
  • B29C53/043—Bending or folding of plates or sheets using rolls or endless belts
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04B—GENERAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS; WALLS, e.g. PARTITIONS; ROOFS; FLOORS; CEILINGS; INSULATION OR OTHER PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS
  • E04B1/00—Constructions in general; Structures which are not restricted either to walls, e.g. partitions, or floors or ceilings or roofs
  • E04B1/62—Insulation or other protection; Elements or use of specified material therefor
  • E04B1/74—Heat, sound or noise insulation, absorption, or reflection; Other building methods affording favourable thermal or acoustical conditions, e.g. accumulating of heat within walls
  • E04B1/76—Heat, sound or noise insulation, absorption, or reflection; Other building methods affording favourable thermal or acoustical conditions, e.g. accumulating of heat within walls specifically with respect to heat only
  • E04B1/78—Heat insulating elements
  • E04B1/80—Heat insulating elements slab-shaped
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F16—ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16L—PIPES; JOINTS OR FITTINGS FOR PIPES; SUPPORTS FOR PIPES, CABLES OR PROTECTIVE TUBING; MEANS FOR THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16L59/00—Thermal insulation in general
  • F16L59/06—Arrangements using an air layer or vacuum
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F16—ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16L—PIPES; JOINTS OR FITTINGS FOR PIPES; SUPPORTS FOR PIPES, CABLES OR PROTECTIVE TUBING; MEANS FOR THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16L59/00—Thermal insulation in general
  • F16L59/06—Arrangements using an air layer or vacuum
  • F16L59/065—Arrangements using an air layer or vacuum using vacuum
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29K—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASSES B29B, B29C OR B29D, RELATING TO MOULDING MATERIALS OR TO MATERIALS FOR MOULDS, REINFORCEMENTS, FILLERS OR PREFORMED PARTS, e.g. INSERTS
  • B29K2995/00—Properties of moulding materials, reinforcements, fillers, preformed parts or moulds
  • B29K2995/0012—Properties of moulding materials, reinforcements, fillers, preformed parts or moulds having particular thermal properties
  • B29K2995/0015—Insulating
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29L—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS B29C, RELATING TO PARTICULAR ARTICLES
  • B29L2023/00—Tubular articles
  • B29L2023/22—Tubes or pipes, i.e. rigid
  • B29L2023/225—Insulated
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
  • F25D—REFRIGERATORS; COLD ROOMS; ICE-BOXES; COOLING OR FREEZING APPARATUS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F25D2201/00—Insulation
  • F25D2201/10—Insulation with respect to heat
  • F25D2201/14—Insulation with respect to heat using subatmospheric pressure
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02A—TECHNOLOGIES FOR ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02A30/00—Adapting or protecting infrastructure or their operation
  • Y02A30/24—Structural elements or technologies for improving thermal insulation
  • Y02A30/242—Slab shaped vacuum insulation
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
  • Y02B80/00—Architectural or constructional elements improving the thermal performance of buildings
  • Y02B80/10—Insulation, e.g. vacuum or aerogel insulation
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10T—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION
  • Y10T428/00—Stock material or miscellaneous articles
  • Y10T428/13—Hollow or container type article [e.g., tube, vase, etc.]
  • Y10T428/1352—Polymer or resin containing [i.e., natural or synthetic]
  • Y10T428/1376—Foam or porous material containing

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method for producing thermo-insulating cylindrical vacuum panels and to the panels thereby obtained.
• Vacuum panels and particularly those made with plastic materials, are being increasingly used in all the fields wherein a thermo-insulation at temperatures lower than about 100 °C is required.
• a thermo-insulation at temperatures lower than about 100 °C is required.
• the walls of domestic and industrial ref igerators of the beverages dispensing machines (wherein thermo-insulation is required mainly in order to separate the portion of the hot drinks, generally at about 70 °C, from that of the cold drinks), or of the containers for isothermal transportation, for example of drugs or cold or frozen food.
• Applications of these panels are being studied also in the building field or in the car industry.
• a vacuum panel is formed of an envelope inside which a filling material is present.
• the envelope has the function of preventing (or reducing as much as possible) the inlet of atmospheric gases inside the panel, so as to keep a vacuum grade compatible with the thermo-insulation level required by the application.
• the envelope is made with so-called "barrier" sheets, of thickness generally not greater than 100 ⁇ m, characterized by a gas permeability being as low as possible.
• These sheets can be formed of a single component but more frequently are multi-layers of different components; in the case of multilayers the barrier effect is conferred by one of the component layers (generally metallic and commonly of aluminium), whereas the other layers generally have functions of mechanical support and protection of the barrier layer.
• the filling material has the function of spacing apart the two opposite faces of the envelope when vacuum is created in the panel.
• This filling material can be inorganic, such as silica powder, glass fibers, aerogels, diatomaceous earth, etc., or organic, such as rigid foams of polyurethane or polystyrene, both in the fo ⁇ n of boards and of powders. Materials more commonly used are open cells polyurethane foams (open cells are necessary to allow their evacuation through mechanical pumping) and, in the case of panels which must resist to temperatures higher than about 150 °C, silica powder (generally of submicronic dimensions).
• the filling material must be anyway porous or discontinuous, so that the pores or the interstices can be evacuated.
• Vacuum panels generally have a planar configuration and can hence be used to insulate substantially parallelepiped bodies, having planar surfaces, but they are not suitable for bodies having substantially cylindrical walls, such as for example bath-heaters or the pipings used for oil transport in the arctic regions.
• thermo-insulation of bodies having non-planar surfaces consists in connecting to each other several flat panels in the shape of bands, for example by gluing together their edges, thus obtaining a composite structure which can be bent along the junction lines so as to adapt it to the shape of the body which has to be insulated.
• heat transfers take place at the junctions, and therefore the quality of the heat insulation at these zones is poor;
• a structure made up of planar parts can only approximate a curved surface, hence there are areas of scarce contact between the panel and the body to be insulated with formation of air chambers and, again, decreasing of the efficiency of the insulation.
• object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing thermo-insulating cylindrical vacuum panels, as well as to provide the resulting panels which are free from the drawbacks of the prior art.
• thermo-insulating cylindrical vacuum panels comprising the steps of:
• - fig. 1 shows a sectional view of the calendering operation of an originally planar panel
• Panels to be subjected to calendering can be of any known type, obtained through any combination of kind of envelope and filling material, with or without getter material.
• the production of planar vacuum panels is well known; for a description of these panels and of methods for the production thereof it is to be referred to a broadly available literature, among which for example patents US 4,726,974 and US 5,943,876, and patent applications WO96/32605, EP-A-437930 and JP-A-7-195385.
• Lateral dimensions of planar panels to be used can be anyone, while the thickness has generally a maximum value depending on the filling material; obviously there is not a lower thickness limit required by the possibility of carrying out the calendering operation, but the thickness of the panel must be such as to ensure good thermo-insulation properties, which would require the use of relatively high thickness values.
• the thickness values really used are derived from the compromise between these two opposite needs; for example, in the case of polyurethane foam boards, the thickness is generally lower than 20 mm, preferably comprised between 8 and 15 mm; in the case of panels with filling of silica powder thickness can vary between about 5 and 20 mm.
• the calendering operation is carried out according to the procedures known in the mechanical field, by passing the planar vacuum panel between at least two rollers and a third element of length equal at least to that of the rollers and placed parallel to the "nip" between the first two rollers; this third element is, generally, a third roller.
• this third element is, generally, a third roller.
• vacuum panel 1 is moved forward from right to left by the co-ordinate moving of rollers 2 and 3 (whose direction of rotation is indicated by arrows), and forced to slide on the third roller 4, which curves it upwardly giving a curving of radius R.
• the curving radius decreases when roller 4 is moved toward right (getting it nearer to the nip between rollers 2 and 3) or upwardly in the drawing, and on the contrary it increases with opposite movements.
• Cylindrical panels having a non circular base can thus be obtained by modifying continuously during the calendering operation the position of roller 4 as described above.
• the calendering operation can even be carried out simultaneously on the planar panel and on another element, such as for example a layer of an adhesive polymeric foam placed on one face of the panel (or on both of them).
• a cylindrical panel which has already, on one of its external or internal surfaces (or both) a layer of adhesive material, useful for fixing the same panel to a wall of the interspace intended to contain it.
• This interspace can be for example that of a concentric double tube piping for isothermal transportation of petroleum, to prevent its heavy fraction from condensing in cold areas obstructing the piping; or interspaces of boilers, for example of water-heaters for domestic use, to reduce the thermal dissipation for energetic saving purposes.
• the panel has a curving radius slightly different from the one of said wall, and in particular slightly lower if the surface of the cylindrical panel to be put in contact with the wall is the internal one, and vice versa.
• the method of the invention has in particular the advantage that the panels can be bent, with a simple and cheap equipment, just before they are fixed in the final utilization place; hence the transportation or the storage of big volume products at the store of the manufacturer or of the final user, is not required.
• Figure 2 shows a vacuum panel, 5, bent according to the method described up to this point. This is different from the panels of the international patent application WO96/32605 especially because it has not grooves on the internal surface, and thus has more uniform properties of thermo-insulation.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Architecture (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• Electromagnetism (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Thermal Insulation (AREA)
• Laminated Bodies (AREA)
• Refrigerator Housings (AREA)
• Casting Or Compression Moulding Of Plastics Or The Like (AREA)
• Insulating Bodies (AREA)
• Shaping Of Tube Ends By Bending Or Straightening (AREA)

Priority Applications (10)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Related Child Applications (1)

Publications (1)

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Family Applications (1)

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Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (16)

• 2001
  • 2001-12-27 IT IT2001MI002812A patent/ITMI20012812A1/it unknown
• 2002
  • 2002-12-19 MX MXPA04002447A patent/MXPA04002447A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2002-12-19 ES ES02795424T patent/ES2247410T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-19 JP JP2003559746A patent/JP2005514243A/ja active Pending
  • 2002-12-19 RU RU2004109809/12A patent/RU2295445C2/ru active
  • 2002-12-19 AU AU2002360213A patent/AU2002360213A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2002-12-19 CA CA2458037A patent/CA2458037C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-19 AT AT02795424T patent/ATE303242T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2002-12-19 BR BRPI0212234-0A patent/BR0212234B1/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2002-12-19 CN CNB028185455A patent/CN100430209C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2002-12-19 WO PCT/IT2002/000808 patent/WO2003059600A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2002-12-19 EP EP02795424A patent/EP1458551B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-19 DE DE60205945T patent/DE60205945T2/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-12-19 KR KR1020047009937A patent/KR100718362B1/ko not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2004
  • 2004-03-29 US US10/811,604 patent/US20040185203A1/en not_active Abandoned

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