High temperature insulation materials manufactured via continuous direct foaming

The need for foaming technologies that work in an industrial environment is increasing with the growing acceptance of cellular materials in many industries. A successful example for an industrial relevant foaming technology is the replica technique that allows the production of several million foam parts per year. Many other promising foaming technologies were developed in the last years. To these belong different direct foaming and pore former burn-out technologies. There, the focus is often upon scientific questions regarding the foam stability and upon exotic techniques producing foams in any possible way. With regard to a wide usage of these foamed materials, the foaming technology itself has to be convenient producing foams in an industrial relevant way. The suitability and advantag es of the developed direct foaming technology will be demonstrated in this paper by manufacturing a typical alumina lightweight refractory brick.