Foto:IVIS
International Vacuum Insulation Symposium, 17-18 September 2009, London
On the 17th and 18th September 2009 the International Vacuum Insulation Symposium will be held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. IVIS 2009 is the ninth meeting of vacuum insulation manufacturers and researchers, and this year is held in association with Oxford Brookes University and Cambridge University.
Vacuum Insulation Panels are established for use in packaging, vehicles, appliances, and building services equipment. The construction sector is also interested in the ability of VIPs to achieve low U values at minimum thicknesses.
Longer service life and robust applications are being developed. Structure can be optimised and thermal bridges designed out with a VIP zone of no more than 50mm for U values down to 0.1 W/m2K. For many applications requiring higher U values the VIPs can be thinner. Designers can concentrate on their architecture, rather than the effort to build in greater insulation thickness.
Foto: IVIS
Using conventional foams or fibres will result in cavity construction of up to 500mm thickness if low U values are to be achieved. If the wall is solid, adding 200mm or 300mm of insulation to the outside may be possible, but the look of the building changes. The same thing happens if framed structures are not to pass through the insulation to create thermal bridges. Adding insulation thickness inside is a noticeable loss of floor space without adding anything positive to the architecture.
VIPs can minimise the loss of floor or site area. The same space saving logic applies to roof and floor construction. The potential of using vacuum to insulate was first appreciated at the Royal Institution in 1892 when James Dewar developed the mirrored vacuum flask. By 1904 this was commercialised as the Thermos Flask. In 1910 Marian Ritter von Smolan Smoluchowski at the University of Kraków filled Dewar's evacuated flask with a fine powder of carbon black, and improved on the thermal insulation.
Generic patents have lapsed long ago, and product development has been the collective focus of effort since. From the 1970s in particular a small and collaborative international grouping of scientists and industrialists have developed foil wrapped VIPs as tested panel products, just like vacuum packed coffee packets available in supermarkets, but flatter. Others are looking at actively evacuated panels, and Vacuum Insulated Glass units for windows.
The Royal Institution is a prestigious venue, completely refurbished with a £20-million design by Sir Terry Farrell. Research has been part of the RI since the founding in 1799. This September the vacuum insulation manufacturers and the researchers they work with will meet construction product designers, architects, developers, construction managers, specifiers, buyers, and the merchants that support them at the RI.
Energy efficient architecture can be thin and spacious if vacuum insulation is applied. Much will depend on the development of reliable and thinner insulations to be detailed into high performance architecture.
To find out who is working on the development and application of vacuum insulation, and how to attend IVIS on the 17th and 18th September 2009 at the Royal Institution in London, visit
http://www.ivisnet.org/.
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