Issue 31/2015 - Aerogels enable low-cost customized production

The 306 Institute of the Third Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation has developed serialized and large-scale aerogel materials covering -100 °C to 2500 °C with a temperature range, and can adjust and customize
the material properties according to customer needs.
This not only solves the problem of key materials for China's weapons and equipment, but also has been popularized and applied
in the civilian field.

Aerogel is a lightweight material with a nanoporous structure and is the thermal insulation material
with the lowest known thermal conductivity.
Due to the difficulty of preparation technology, it was initially only used in special fields
such as aerospace.
With the efforts of 306 scientific and technological personnel, the civil low-cost aerogel material production line has been built, which can batch prepare large-size, different specifications, adjustable performance of high-grade aerogel insulation felt, flexible aerogel cloth and other products, with a production capacity
of 40,000 cubic meters of aerogel flexible felt and 500,000 square meters of aerogel flexible cloth.
Its core patent "A multi-component aerogel composite material and preparation method thereof" also won the 2014 China Patent Award Excellence Award
.

On the basis of aerogel component technology, they carried out in-depth low-cost technology research and developed aerogel flexible felt products
.
The product has the advantages of excellent thermal insulation performance, controllable thickness and good flexibility, and can be continuously mass-produced
.
The width of the product can reach 1.
5 meters, and the length varies from
tens to hundreds of meters.
Under the same cost conditions, its thermal insulation performance is more than 60% better than
traditional materials.
The product has been applied to thermal pipelines, high-speed railway carriages, large ships and other thermal insulation fields, and is expected to promote the upgrading of traditional thermal insulation materials in civil fields such as building energy saving, petrochemical pipeline insulation, and high-temperature furnace insulation
in the future.

Researchers have also developed aerogel flexible cloth
by expanding the function of thermal insulation aerogel technology and modifying materials.
Aerogel flexible cloth is a new type of fabric, which has the characteristics of light weight, extremely low thermal conductivity, excellent flexibility, high flatness, hydrophobic air permeability and good ease of use, which is suitable for outdoor products such as thermal clothing, shoes and hats, tents and other outdoor products and high-temperature electronic and electrical products
.
At present, 306 institutes have completed the pilot production of aerogel flexible cloth and the trial production and preliminary promotion
of aerogel insulation shoes.
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