Author Archives: chris

Aerogels are a diverse class of porous, solid materials that exhibit an uncanny array of extreme materials properties. Most notably aerogels are known for their extreme low densities (which range from 0.0011 to ~0.5 g cm-3) and thermal insulating properties. Silica aerogel is the most common type of aerogel, most frequently seen in photographs and what people generally refer to when using the word “aerogel” without an adjective in front (although there are many other types of aerogel). Read more.

HVAC (heating, ventilation, & air condition) systems provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality through mechanical engineering. Industrial HVAC systems are an important part of structures such as apartment buildings, hotels and senior living facilities, medium to large industrial and office buildings such as skyscrapers and hospitals, vehicles such as trains, airplanes, ships and submarines, and in marine environments, where safe and healthy building conditions are regulated with respect to temperature and humidity, using fresh air from outdoors. Read more.

The Garfield Building in San Francisco, located in the heart of the theater district, is a beautiful 28 unit building built by the Reid Brothers in 1908, and the infrastructure was totally gutted and remodeled in 2008. Dave Pritchard, the Garfield’s HOA President, reached out to ThermaXX in the Spring of 2018. Dave was passionately looking at all possible ways to become more energy efficient, and wanted to look at the potential cost effectiveness of techniques he had seen used commercially in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry applied in a residential application. Read more.

Traditional stay-in-place thermal insulation for piping and other components is rigid, and if it’s partially or fully removed for inspections or maintenance it usually can’t be replaced. Insulation that isn’t flexible, or rigid insulation, doesn’t work for every application. There are some cases where insulation blankets, like Thermaxx Jackets, are a better solution because they can be made with alternative insulation materials that are flexible. This allows for components of irregular shape to be insulated effectively. Read more.

The engine room (or ER) of a large marine vessel such as a tug boat, fire boat, or mega ship houses the vessel’s prime mover, usually some variations of a heat engine – diesel engine, gas or steam turbine, or some combination of these. On a large percentage of vessels ships and boats, the engine room is located near the bottom, and at the rear or aft end of the vessel, and usually comprises few compartments. As shown in this video tour of a mega ship’s engine room, there are numerous components within the engine room including boilers, generators, fuel pumps, exhaust manifolds and more. Many of these marine engine room components benefit from the installation of insulation blankets. Read more.