Near Term Perspectives and Conclusions

The outgassing and permeation data, on both components and finished panels, and the use of models quoted in the literature, allow the evaluation of the total gas load and the pressure increase in a vacuum panel as a function of time, size and operating conditions. This in turn is beneficial for designing the most suitable solution for the absorbent. 

Mass production technologies to manufacture high quality open cell foam panels are on the market. Several techniques are also becoming available for the fast measurement of the thermal conductivity. This is a very important issue to build a QA/QC system able to ensure the quality and the reliability of the products, not only after production but also 

Cost is still the main obstacle to the widespread adoption of this technology. A preliminary qualitative cost comparison between silica and open cell PU, which includes raw material, panel manufacture and panel installation costs [10] shows that a cost reduction of about one-third over silica could be achieved. This has to be improved to bring the cost of the vacuum panel down further, so as to really interest more segments of the insulation industry. 

Very recent breakthroughs in the foam mass production technologies seem to indicate that this target is reachable. 

Even though far from being complete, the material presented in this chapter shows that significant technological achievements have been obtained during the last few years. 

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