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.sup.3; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

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 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.sub.4 and TeO.sub.3, wherein the pump-out tube seal comprises more TeO.sub.3 than TeO.sub.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.sub.2 and V.sub.2O.sub.5, and wherein more V in the pump-out tube seal is in a form of VO.sub.2 than V.sub.2O.sub.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 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; heating (e.g., via laser) the first seal material; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

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 a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal including a first seal layer, a second seal layer, and a third seal layer, wherein the first seal layer may be located between at least the second and third seal layers; wherein, for at least one location of the seal, the first seal layer has a first thickness, the second seal layer has a second thickness, and the third seal layer has a third thickness; and wherein the first thickness may be greater than the second thickness and less than the third thickness.

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 a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal including a first seal layer and a second seal layer, wherein, for at least one location of the seal, the first seal layer has a first width and the second seal layer has a second width, wherein the first width of the first seal layer may be from about 2-20 mm, more preferably from about 3-10 mm, and possibly from about 4-8 mm.

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 a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first substrate and the second substrate, the seal comprising a first seal layer; wherein the first seal layer comprises tellurium oxide and vanadium oxide; wherein the first seal layer comprises, on a wt. %, more tellurium oxide than vanadium oxide, and has a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm.sup.3.

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 panel may include a getter. The getter may be laser activated in a manner which causes the getter to transform and realize a TiAlV phase (e.g., Al.sub.3V.sub.0.333Ti.sub.0.667) of crystallite material. The getter may be a thin film getter and/or may be elongated in shape.

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, including at least one layer including boron oxide (e.g., B.sub.2O.sub.3 or any other stoichiometry).

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 heating, e.g., via laser, seal material in order to form the first seal layer.