SHAPING OF THERMAL INSULATION MATERIAL

摘要

The invention relates to the formation of a protective skin on blocks of microporous thermal insulation material. Such material is difficult to protect because the securement of a protective layer by some form of adhesive securement provides only a relatively loose bond. According to the invention, a laser beam is used to fuse a surface layer of particles in the material to form a protective skin. The beam may be passed over an otherwise "raw" edge of a block of material, or used also to cut the block from a workpiece while simultaneously forming the skin. This enables the cutting of accurate shapes either by manual or automatic control of the passage of the beam through the workpiece, the latter much facilitating mass production of relatively complicated shapes.