the fallacy of aerogel

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE I HAVE REPRINTED FROM SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW

THE CONTENT COMES FROM OUTLAST TECHNOLOGIES GmbH MUNICH, GERMANY

My comments will appear in italics.

Outlast Technologies GmbH in Munich, Germany, has patented the procedure to adhere aerogel to nonwovens, enabling materials as thin as 1–3 mm to be well insulated and still soft and flexible. The treated fabrics, sold under the name Aersulate^®, can then be processed conventionally and made into clothing, shoes, tents, pipe sheathing, insulation or window treatments or be used in firefighting equipment, vehicles, electronics, aircraft and more.

Outlast Technologies has been selling their beads of paraffin for about 30 years or so and all though they have stayed in business it has never worked. Now they are endeavoring to add aerogel liquid particles of quartz to a non-woven material that will be a form of insulation.

Imagine a material that is 1mm thick which is about the thickness of a credit card. 3mm is 3 times that or the thickness of 3 credit cards. Think about, how much insulation can that, offer? Are they really that brain dead!!!

Anywhere insulation is needed in a small space could be a possible place to put Aersulate fabric; for example, a cell phone pocket in a coat could help preserve battery life in the cold or avoid it overheating in hot environments. The thermal resistance of Aersulate is more than double that of a comparable conventional fleece.

Yes, they are brain dead. How about the heat from your body warming the fabric used to make the pocket of your coat? They are wanting to sell a form of insulation not a form of cooling. Brain dead, yes, they keep proving it.

Thermal resistance means the material is resisting heat, while fleece absorbs it.

One layer of Aersulate just 1 mm thick protects the skin from being scalded by boiling water.

I would like to see a live video of the person demonstrating having the scalding water pored over his skin, maybe his neck. Brain dead!

In the past, applying aerogel to a substrate meant that the product got rigid, as aerogel is made of quartz—even if it is 99.8% air. “The consistency of aerogel can be best described as liquid dust particles which spread uncontrollably throughout a room within seconds,” says Volker Schuster, head of research and development at Outlast Technologies. “This is why processing is a big challenge.”

Some how Volker has learned how to corral these dust particles so they do not spread uncontrollably throughout a room within seconds. And as he says aerogel can best be described as liquid. Aerogel is made of quartz which as far as I know is a rock or hard like a rock. I have owned gold quartz jewelry and the quartz is rock solid.

Are they crush the quartz so it becomes particles that are so small it will be as they claim?

I think all of what Volker says is mumbo jumbo.

The density of the porous substance is more than 1,000 times lower than glass manufactured from the same material. It’s been used by NASA for years, for example in the insulation of its Mars rovers.

How can the density of this porous substance be 1000 times lower than glass manufactured from the same material? That sounds like gibberish to me. And a contradiction to boot.

Now I ask what part of the mars rovers need insulation?

“One liter of aerogel weighs just 50 grams (1.8 ounces),” says Schuster. “Just 10 grams of the material has the same surface area as a soccer field, though.”

This last paragraph is the icing on the cake demonstrating how a person can be brain dead. If it were possible to make a material that could cover a soccer field how thick/thin would it be?

The whole premise of this article is to introduce a new form of insulation which this guy Volker has not been able to do because aerogel in and of itself is not a form of insulation and combining it with any fabric does not change that fact.

The primaloft company has also incorporated the aerogel with their polyester fiberfill product all to no avail to increase its insulation ability. Primaloft is as poor an insulation as can be made, adding the aerogel changes nothing. The primaloft people are also brain dead.

Try as companies may the continuous filament fiberfill trade named Climashield which I use to make my Lamilite will never be replaced. When I look to the future 100 years from now continuous filament fiberfill by any name if the Climashield and Lamilite names are no longer used will still be the best insulating medium in the wor