LuxWall, Inc.

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; a pump-out/evacuation tube extending at least partly into an aperture in one of the substrates; and a pump-out/evacuation tube seal. The pump-out/evacuation tube seal may include at least one of: (a) from about 20-80 wt. % tellurium oxide, the tellurium oxide comprising TeO 4 and TeO 3 , wherein the pump-out tube seal comprises more TeO 3 than TeO 4 by wt. %; and/or (b) tellurium oxide and from about 10-50 wt. % vanadium oxide, wherein the pump-out tube seal by wt. % comprises more tellurium oxide than vanadium oxide, and wherein the vanadium oxide comprises VO 2 and V 2 O 5 , and wherein more V in the pump-out tube seal is in a form of VO 2 than V 2 O 5 . A substantially donut-shaped laser beam may be used to heat pump-out tube material in order to form a pump-out tube seal.

A vacuum insulating panel includes first and second substrates (e.g., glass substrates), a hermetic edge seal, a pump-out port, and spacers sandwiched between at least the two substrates. The gap between the substrates may be at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure to provide insulating properties. The vacuum insulating panel may include a multi-layer edge seal structure with coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs) of layers of the seal structure optimized for CTE grading.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, the vacuum insulating panel comprising a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second glass substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer. The method may include laser heating, using a laser beam from a continuous wave near-IR laser, seal material in order to form the first seal layer; wherein the laser heating may include causing the laser beam to move at a lateral speed of from about 5-70 mm/second relative to the substrates and the first seal material so that the laser beam at least partially passes through at least one of the glass substrates and impinges upon at least the second seal layer in order to heat the second seal layer and fire and/or sinter the first seal material thereby forming the first seal layer.

A vacuum insulating panel may include: a first glass substrate; a second glass substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, wherein the gap is at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal including a first ceramic seal layer and a second ceramic seal layer, wherein the second ceramic seal layer is located between at least the first ceramic seal layer and the first glass substrate; and wherein one or more of: (i) a thermal (TC) conductivity of the first ceramic seal layer is be less than a thermal conductivity of the first glass substrate, and wherein the thermal conductivity of the first glass substrate is less than a thermal conductivity of the second ceramic seal layer, so that the thermal conductivity of the second ceramic seal layer is greater than the thermal conductivity of the first substrate and greater than the thermal conductivity of the first ceramic seal layer; (ii) a thermal conductivity of the second ceramic seal layer is greater than a thermal conductivity of the first ceramic seal layer; and/or (iii) a ratio TDp1/TDg, where TDp1 represents a thermal diffusivity (TD) of the second ceramic seal layer and TDg represents a thermal diffusivity of the first glass substrate, is at least 1.020 and wherein the thermal diffusivity of the second ceramic seal layer is greater than a thermal diffusivity of the first ceramic seal layer.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, the vacuum insulating panel including a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second glass substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer. The method may include: providing first seal material for the first seal layer in a location at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates; laser heating, using a laser beam from a continuous wave near-IR laser, the first seal material in order to form the first seal layer; wherein said laser heating may comprise using the laser beam, having a size of from about 2-15 mm, so that the laser beam at least partially passes through at least one of the glass substrates to fire and/or sinter the first seal material thereby forming the first seal layer, in a manner so that the first seal layer a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm 3 ; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel including a first substrate, a second substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer, and optionally second and/or third primer layer(s). The method may include at least one of: (i) laser heating, using a laser beam from a laser, the first seal material for firing and/or sintering the first seal material to form the first seal layer, in a manner that causes TeO 4 >TeO 3 in the first seal material to transform into TeO 3 >TeO 4 due to said laser heating, whereby an amount of TeO 4 decreases and an amount of TeO 3 increases due to said laser heating, and/or (ii) laser heating in a manner that causes V 2 O 5 >VO 2 in the first seal material to transform into VO 2 >V 2 O 5 due to said laser heating whereby an amount of VO 2 increases and an amount of V 2 O 5 decreases due to said laser heating, so that after said laser heating the first seal layer comprises more VO 2 than V 2 O 5 by wt. %.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, the vacuum insulating panel including a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second glass substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer. The method may include: providing first seal material for the first seal layer in a location at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates; laser heating, using a laser beam from a continuous wave near-IR laser, the first seal material in order to form the first seal layer; wherein said laser heating may comprise using the laser beam, having a size of from about 2-15 mm, so that the laser beam at least partially passes through at least one of the glass substrates to fire and/or sinter the first seal material thereby forming the first seal layer, in a manner so that the first seal layer a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm 3 ; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, where the vacuum insulating panel may include a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates, wherein the seal may comprise a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer. The method may include at least one of: providing first seal material for the first seal layer at a location at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates; pre-heating so as to cause at least one of (a) at least one of the glass substrates, (b) the second seal layer, and/or (c) the first seal material, to reach a pre-heat temperature; after said pre-heating, laser heating the first seal material in order to fire and/or sinter the first seal material and form the first seal layer in a manner so that the first seal layer may have a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm 3 , wherein said laser heating may cause at least one of the first seal material and/or the second seal layer to reach a temperature above the melting point (Tm) of the first seal material for no more than about 5 seconds; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, where the vacuum insulating panel may include a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second glass substrates, the seal including a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer. The method may include at least one of: providing first seal material for the first seal layer at a location between at least the first and second glass substrates; pre-heating the glass substrates, the first seal material, and the second seal layer; wherein said pre-heating may cause at least one of (a) at least one of the glass substrates, (b) the second seal layer, and/or (c) the first seal material, to reach a pre-heat temperature; wherein the pre-heat temperature may be from about 40-120 degrees C. less than a melting point (Tm) of the first seal material, from about 150-450 degrees less than a melting point (Tm) of the second seal material, and/or within about 70 degrees C. of a softening point (Ts) of the first seal material; after said pre-heating, laser heating the first seal material in order to fire and/or sinter the first seal material and form the first seal layer in a manner so that the first seal layer may have a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm 3 ; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

A vacuum insulating panel includes 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 a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer; and wherein the first seal layer may include from about 20-80 wt. % tellurium oxide, the tellurium oxide comprising TeO 4 and TeO 3 , and wherein the first seal layer comprises more TeO 3 than TeO 4 by wt. %.