Foamed Ceramic Insulation Bricks?

[dogboy]

If you know what those are , great. If you know where to get some, that's super-cowlick-fraggle-dipstick ; I mean, very
very groovy . If you don't know what they are, then go away now :wink:, and don't start talking about some other kind of
brick, any kind of normal brick, because that's not what I'm looking for:no:. I've been over and over this with numerous
refractory suppliers , and most just go "huh?..no, we don't have that, but this (inevitably some kind or other of normal product) might work" . "That" doesn't work as good as the foamed ceramic, and I've tried every normal dang thing I could find, and I find them all to have one fatal flaw or the other. Very normal.

What I serendipitously got hold of 30 years ago was some 6" x6" x 3" (kiln?) bricks that turned out to be ... "foamed ceramic" ,made by the company (not known to me) that developed the Space Shuttle tiles. This material is nothing short of amazing . I use it as 1/2" thick spacers between stacks of thin tool steel plates in the electric kiln I use for heat treating. Troble was, they wanted to sell $5,000 worth , and I didn't get any more info at the time .
They are very, very strong and durable for their weight, and I have used them hundreds of times without any deterioration whatsoever because of heating/cooling (they go to 1500F and abrupt air-cooling ) . The only reason I need more after 30 years is because they will break when dropped . They are very porous, yet the material itself is very tough, rigid, and strong. Not at all like soft firebrick (that's , you know...soft), or hard firebrick (very dense, heavy, and sucks up heat like crazy), or any of the normal soldering-pad refractories from the jewelry industry. 1/4" hard brick plates work decent, but don't last . Soft soldering pads work but don't last . Someone said "maybe ask some foundry people " .

Anyway, I had given up, am living with barely worthwhile alternatives, but thought I'd ask here .

Dar:cool:

[Harry72]

HRSI LI-900 silica tiles, they are the white tiles on the space shuttles(black tiles had carbon added for high temps), was developed by Lockheed.

Is about the only info I could find, have you tried that fibro blanket stuff they use to insulate furnaces with. We use it a fair bit of it at work, the stuff we get comes in 1" thick by 2" and 18" wide rolls.
Its not real durable to physical damage but would last a little while treated with care.

[dogboy]

HRSI LI-900 silica tiles, they are the white tiles on the space shuttles(black tiles had carbon added for high temps), was developed by Lockheed.

Is about the only info I could find, have you tried that fibro blanket stuff they use to insulate furnaces with. We use it a fair bit of it at work, the stuff we get comes in 1" thick by 2" and 18" wide rolls.
Its not real durable to physical damage but would last a little while treated with care.

Rolls ? ...:o:~ that would normally disqualify you from this thread , but you get a pass because you did provide solid leads
:U:D

The application requires stiff plates (I cut the current bricks into 1/2" thick pieces ) that can hold weight (maybe 1/4" x 6" x 4" worth of steel ) and stack alternating layers of brick,steel,brick,steel about 3-4" high in the kiln . The foamed brick I have is so strong that I can grab a 6" x6" x 1/2" piece of it by the corner , with the steel on it , and take it in or out of the kiln that way .

Thanks for the info, I definitely appreciate it :2tsup:

[.RC.]

Insulation bricks are light because they are full of air, and air is a great insulator.

These bricks here are full of air so should be perfect Besser® Block (http://www.adbrimasonry.com.au/homeowner/bricks-and-blocks/concrete-bricks-and-blocks/grey-block)

[dogboy]

Insulation bricks are light because they are full of air, and air is a great insulator.

These bricks here are full of air so should be perfect Besser® Block (http://www.adbrimasonry.com.au/homeowner/bricks-and-blocks/concrete-bricks-and-blocks/grey-block)
Er... not even remotely like what I described that I have, or am looking for :no::?

Foamed ceramic silica . Porous, yes, high temp refractory, yes, concrete .... not so much.

[Oldneweng]

Er... not even remotely like what I described that I have, or am looking for :no::?

Foamed ceramic silica . Porous, yes, high temp refractory, yes, concrete .... not so much.

Ha Ha, don't worry about it. He's having a lend of you. Its an Aussie thing. Don't take anything seriously.

Dean

[dogboy]

Ha Ha, don't worry about it. He's having a lend of you. Its an Aussie thing. Don't take anything seriously.

Dean

Oh, in that case , well played :2tsup:
I thought "Jeez, did this guy even read the op ?...I spend hours explaining everything about the miraculous properties of my Magical Mystery Material, and Joe Yahoo comes back with blinking (blending , burbling ?...I'm completely unfamiliar with Aussie vernacular ) concrete building blocks...are you flopping (floundering, fondling, flagellating ?) kidding me ? !! " .



:clap3:

[Oldneweng]

Joe Yahoo comes back with blinking

That will work.


concrete building blocks...are you flopping (floundering, fondling, flagellating ?) kidding me ? !! " .

Flaming will work in this case.

Actually the true Aussie vernacular would have been a bit ruder, but that is not allowed on this forum.

Dean

[dogboy]

That will work.



Flaming will work in this case.

Actually the true Aussie vernacular would have been a bit ruder, but that is not allowed on this forum.

Dean

Flaunting ?... Fluting?... Flailing?... Fleecing ?... oh, yeah, it's "fleecing" , isn't it ?
Sheep... or is that a Kiwi thing ? We do sheep here in parts of the U.S. , too.
Not so much where I'm at ; it's more about cattle and horses , but sheep shag...
uh, there are sheep here , too.

[Oldneweng]

I am not going to touch that. :no:

Dean

[dogboy]

I am not going to touch that. :no:

Dean

Hands off...step away from the sheep :2tsup:

I was going to amend that post , but ...too late :B

The sheep has an M.C. Hammer sign on it that says "You Can't Touch This".

Okay, I'm going to shut up now , and see about having this hoof removed from this mouth :club:

[jhovel]

Since you are "in the neighborhood", why don't you ring up NASA or Lockheed and just ask? Since the space shuttle program is over, there may well be a pile of them in some corner somewhere looking for a good home. I've heard of and experienced more unexpected things. You won;t find out unless you ask.
Please share the responses you get with us...... :)

[dogboy]

Since you are "in the neighborhood", why don't you ring up NASA or Lockheed and just ask? Since the space shuttle program is over, there may well be a pile of them in some corner somewhere looking for a good home. I've heard of and experienced more unexpected things. You won;t find out unless you ask.
Please share the responses you get with us...... :)
That's a crazy idea. Maybe crazy enough to work ! :2tsup:

Might take me years to figure out and get through to the right people, but maybe not :;

[jhovel]

That's a crazy idea. Maybe crazy enough to work ! :2tsup:

Might take me years to figure out and get through to the right people, but maybe not :;

I'd start by emailing these people and asking for the right contact: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/network.html
Did you realise that NASA gave them away to schools etc for the price of postage? You can even buy them on ebay..... go figure.
There is actually a huge amount of information on the stuff (Li-900) and something similar is available as building insulation. It is called "Spacetherm", a commercial version of 'Aerogel'. Lots of info on that too.
I'll keep reading about it now too. Lets see if we can come up with together. Interesting stuff.

[dogboy]

I'd start by emailing these people and asking for the right contact: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/network.html
Did you realise that NASA gave them away to schools etc for the price of postage? You can even buy them on ebay..... go figure.
There is actually a huge amount of information on the stuff (Li-900) and something similar is available as building insulation. It is called "Spacetherm", a commercial version of 'Aerogel'. Lots of info on that too.
I'll keep reading about it now too. Lets see if we can come up with together. Interesting stuff.

Yeah, it was easy enough to submit an online form to NASA; I'll wait and see what happens. It said they
might take a while to respond. Aerogel is not at all what I need but the Silica LI-900 brick probably is, and
I might have some luck searching for "silica refractory brick" - will do that very soon . I also have a couple
of refractory suppliers lined up to help look, and maybe one has something usable . Thanks !
Ebay, you say ? ... worth a look ...

[jhovel]

This supplier Refractories,Fire Refractory,Fire Brick,Insulation Refractory,high temperature refractory (http://www.sunriserefractory.com/products/) may provide you with a bit more information of what's available. They seem to make all kinds of fire bricks and insulation material.

[NedsHead]

So is the foamed ceramic fire brick in direct contact with the heating element, does the material need to be non conductive? the reason I ask is that maybe you could skip the ceramic all together and use graphite..