Thermal insulation pipe

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12492777-B2
Application number	US-202118028539-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2021
Priority date	Nov 20, 2020
Publication date	Dec 9, 2025
Grant date	Dec 9, 2025

Abstract

An objective of the present invention is to provide a pipe through which fluids can flow, in which thermal insulation in a space between an inner wall and an outer wall is achieved at low cost and high performance. The thermal insulation pipe of the present invention is a thermal insulation pipe formed by a double wall pipe of an inner pipe and an outer pipe. A thermal-insulating material to be filled in a space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe is made from an aerogel having a three-dimensional network structure with a framework constituted by a cluster of aggregation of primary particles. The thermal-insulating material includes fine particles having a three-dimensional network structure with a framework of the primary particles. A preferred form of such a thermal-insulating material is weakly bonded aerogel ultrafine particle generated by crushing at ultra-high speed a low-binding ultrafine aerogel generated from an aerogel with aging conditions during manufacturing process set to a low temperature and short time period.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A thermal insulation pipe comprising:
an inner pipe, an outer pipe, a space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe, and a thermal-insulating material filled in the space, wherein the thermal-insulating material is a weakly bonded ultrafine aerogel powder that is made from crushed aerogel having a three-dimensional network structure with a framework constituted by a cluster that is an aggregation of primary particles such that the weakly bonded ultrafine aerogel powder comprises fine particles having a three-dimensional network structure with a framework of the primary particles, and wherein 50% or more of a total number of the fine particles are dispersed with a mode value of the particle size of 0.1 μm or more and 1.0 μm or less.

2 . The thermal insulation pipe according to claim 1 , wherein the thermal-insulating material further comprises hollow particles.

3 . The thermal insulation pipe according to claim 2 , wherein each hollow particle has a shell, and gas having thermal conductivity lower than that of air is enclosed in a hollow portion inside the shell.

4 . The thermal insulation pipe according to claim 1 , wherein gas having a lower thermal conductivity than that of air is enclosed in the space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe.

5 . The thermal insulation pipe according to claim 1 , wherein a pressure in the space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe is lower than an atmospheric pressure.

6 . The thermal insulation pipe according to claim 1 , wherein
the thermal insulation pipe comprises a support mechanism fixed to the outer pipe for supporting the inner pipe; and the support mechanism is formed by folding a member that is longer than the linear distance between the inner pipe and the outer pipe.

7 . The thermal insulation pipe according to claim 1 , wherein the inner pipe is further wrapped with a member containing fiber.

Assignees

• Nat Inst Materials Science
• Krosakiharima Corp

Inventors

• Wu Rudder
• Lee Kuan-I
• Matsuzaki Kazuhiro
• Sasayama Hironobu
• Matsuo Yukihisa
• Yamashita Shogo

Classifications

• F16L59/143

  Pre-insulated pipes · CPC title

• F16L59/12

  Arrangements for supporting insulation from the wall or body insulated, e.g. by means of spacers between pipe and heat-insulating material; Arrangements specially adapted for supporting insulated bodies · CPC title

• F16L9/18

  Double-walled pipes; Multi-channel pipes or pipe assemblies · CPC title

• F16L59/06

  Arrangements using an air layer or vacuum · CPC title

• F16L59/14 Primary

  Arrangements for the insulation of pipes or pipe systems (F16L59/02 - F16L59/12 take precedence) · CPC title