Marine Refrigeration with aerogel

[lilyelaine]

Hello, this forum has been incredibly helpful with many threads about refrigeration and in particular doing so with aerogel. I am in the processing of building my own fridge and am just trying to figure out the best way to finish the inside of the cool box. Has anyone done layers of fibreglass directly onto the aerogel sheets? I was wondering if the dust would create a problem, if the fibreglass would stick enough, or the aerogel would just suck in all the epoxy.. is it better to stick FRP to the aerogel but then using what?
Alternatively I was going to use stick a sheet of blueboard to the final layer of aerogel and use that as the inside of the box to then be glassed but I was not happy with how well the fibreglass stuck to the blueboard either.
Any recommendations/help would be greatly appreciated ! Thank you

[Bowdrie]

I believe that you are talking about "Cryogel X201"?
If you wish to build a custom box, best practice is to start with a male mold that you lay-up a fiberglass box over, then pop it off the mold, and then add insulation around it, or sometimes take pre-cut foam panels that are already glassed, tack/glue them together and glass-tape the inside seams.
I've not tried it, but I can well imagine that trying to build a box by glassing inside surfaces of Cryogel seems like a very frustrating job with a high probability of poor results, (or disaster,) like a warped plane/panel, or a top that isn't flat and true.
If starting with a molded fiberglass box, erect a blue-board box around the molded box, with some space, and use pour-foam to fill the space/gap, the corners of the blue-board can then be rounded/smoothed and then wrap your Cryogel around the foamed box, dealing with the sealing and seams as per company instructions.
It's important that zero air space exist between the box and its insulation to prevent condensation.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, lilyelaine.

[OzeLouie]

Originally Posted by lilyelaine

Hello, this forum has been incredibly helpful with many threads about refrigeration and in particular doing so with aerogel. I am in the processing of building my own fridge and am just trying to figure out the best way to finish the inside of the cool box. Has anyone done layers of fibreglass directly onto the aerogel sheets? I was wondering if the dust would create a problem, if the fibreglass would stick enough, or the aerogel would just suck in all the epoxy.. is it better to stick FRP to the aerogel but then using what?
Alternatively I was going to use stick a sheet of blueboard to the final layer of aerogel and use that as the inside of the box to then be glassed but I was not happy with how well the fibreglass stuck to the blueboard either.
Any recommendations/help would be greatly appreciated ! Thank you

Have no experience myself but observed a lot of insulation applications and found this old 'two mix urethane' doc that might help...

Cheers OzeLouie

[Richard Kollmann]

Originally Posted by OzeLouie

Have no experience myself but observed a lot of insulation applications and found this old 'two mix urethane' doc that might help...

Cheers OzeLouie

Attachment 250968

Home brew mixing of urethane foam was not successful in boat refrigeration boxes because for one reason the density could not be controlled creating outgassing of the real insulating properties. Also after gas has left without a positive moisture barrier these open areas or replaced with air containing small amounts of heat conducting moisture.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

I believe that you are talking about "Cryogel X201"?

If you wish to build a custom box, best practice is to start with a male mold that you lay-up a fiberglass box over, then pop it off the mold, and then add insulation around it, or sometimes take pre-cut foam panels that are already glassed, tack/glue them together and glass-tape the inside seams.

I've not tried it, but I can well imagine that trying to build a box by glassing inside surfaces of Cryogel seems like a very frustrating job with a high probability of poor results, (or disaster,) like a warped plane/panel, or a top that isn't flat and true.

If starting with a molded fiberglass box, erect a blue-board box around the molded box, with some space, and use pour-foam to fill the space/gap, the corners of the blue-board can then be rounded/smoothed and then wrap your Cryogel around the foamed box, dealing with the sealing and seams as per company instructions.

It's important that zero air space exist between the box and its insulation to prevent condensation.

This.. ^^^^

[RaymondR]

I built my first box from polyurethane foam and then fibre glassed the inside and the experience decided me to never do it again.

Better to assemble the box without gluing the panels together, marking the parts you want glassed ,disassemble, glass and then final assemble and fillet the corners.