Vacuum Insulated Panel Tube Seal Structure to Prevent Cracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vacuum insulating panels face issues with seal structures for evacuation tubes, leading to breakage and cracking, which compromises hermeticity and results in premature window failures.
Innovation Solution
The design includes a vacuum insulating panel with specific bore configurations and a tube seal structure that leaves a significant gap unfilled with seal material, enhancing adhesion and hermeticity, reducing seal and glass breakage, and improving thermal stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the evacuation tube seal structure is filled completely with seal material, then the hermeticity is improved, but the seal structure becomes prone to breakage and cracking
Solution Approach 1:
The seal structure employs different fill levels in different regions: the lower portion (first gap) is partially filled with seal material to provide support, while the upper portion (second gap) remains unfilled to prevent stress concentration. This local differentiation allows the seal to maintain hermeticity where needed while avoiding breakage in stress-prone areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The seal structure is divided into distinct segments: a lower support region with seal material and an upper unfilled region. This segmentation allows each portion to serve its specific function - the lower part provides structural support while the upper part remains flexible and stress-free, preventing crack propagation.
2Reliability
If the seal material is applied extensively to ensure hermeticity, then the sealing performance is improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of completely filling the seal structure with seal material, the invention applies seal material partially - specifically in the lower gap region. This partial action is sufficient to achieve the required hermeticity while significantly simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing material usage.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the evacuation tube is firmly supported to prevent breakage, then the structural stability is improved, but the thermal stress resistance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure provides firm support in the lower region where the evacuation tube enters the glass substrate, ensuring structural stability. In the upper region, the absence of seal material allows the tube to move freely, accommodating thermal expansion and contraction without generating stress concentrations that would lead to breakage.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design reduces seal failures and tube breakage, enhances moisture resistance, improves durability, and maintains thermal stability under asymmetric thermal conditions, while allowing for faster manufacturing.
Implementation Method 1
Providing a vacuum in the space between the substrates reduces conduction and convection heat transport, and thus provides insulating properties
Implementation Method 2
a tube seal supported on at least the first support surface of the first glass substrate and surrounding at least a periphery of the evacuation tube
Data Source
AI summary
A vacuum insulating panel may include: a first substrate; a second substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, wherein the gap is at pressure less than atmospheric pressure; an evacuation tube extending at least partly into an aperture in one of the substrates; and an evacuation tube seal at least partially surrounding the tube. A laser beam (e.g., spot laser beam, or donut/ring-shaped laser beam) may be used to heat the tube seal material to form a hermetic seal around the tube. A gap (e.g., G1) may be provided between the tube seal and a tube support surface, and a significant amount of volume of the gap may be free of and/or not filled with seal material of the tube seal, which has advantageously been found to reduce seal failures and tube breakage failures.