INSULATING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING AN INSULATING DEVICE

Abstract

An insulating device for insulating a useable space from an external environment, with an inner shell which borders a useable space and which is surrounded by an outer shell, the inner shell being movably accommodated in the outer shell and delimiting an insulating space with the outer shell, and the inner shell being assigned a superconductor is assigned to the inner shell, and with a magnet assigned to the outer shell, which magnet enables a force-transmitting interaction with the superconductor for the contactless provision of supporting forces for the inner shell.

Claims

1. An insulating device for insulating a useable space from an external environment, having an inner shell which bounds a useable space and which is surrounded by an outer shell, the inner shell being movably accommodated in the outer shell and delimiting an insulating space with the outer shell, and the inner shell being assigned a superconductor, and with a magnet assigned to the outer shell, which magnet enables a force-transmitting interaction with the superconductor for the contactless provision of supporting forces for the inner shell.

2. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein the insulation space between the inner shell and the outer shell is gas-tight.

3. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein a support element which is elastically deformable or shape-changing is arranged in the insulating space between the inner shell and the outer shell, which support element supports the weight of the inner shell.

4. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein the magnet is arranged in a movable manner on the outer shell.

5. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein the inner shell has a constant profile along a profile section and wherein a plurality of permanent magnets and/or superconductors are provided along the profile section.

6. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein the inner shell is a tube and wherein the outer shell is a tube and wherein the inner shell is connected to the outer shell in a sealing manner at each end.

7. The insulating device according to 1, wherein the inner shell is bottle-shaped and has an opening for the useable space, the bottle-shaped outer shell being connected to the inner shell in a sealing manner in the region of a mouth opening of the bottle-shaped outer shell.

8. The insulating device according to claim 7, wherein a first superconductor is arranged adjacent to a bottom region of the bottle-shaped inner shell and wherein a permanent magnet and/or a second superconductor is located on a side wall of the bottle-shaped inner shell, which side-wall is formed between the bottom region and a neck region of the inner shell.

9. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein the inner shell is made, at least in some areas, of a composite material which comprises a proportion of superconductor material.

10. The insulating device according to claim 1, wherein an insulating layer is arranged in the insulation space.

11. A method for producing an insulating device having an inner shell which bounds a useable space and which is surrounded by an outer shell, the inner shell being movably accommodated in the outer shell and delimiting an insulating space with the outer shell, and the inner shell being assigned a superconductor, and with a magnet assigned to the outer shell, which magnet enables a force-transmitting interaction with the superconductor for the contactless provision of supporting forces for the inner shell, wherein the inner shell is produced by a method from the group: producing the inner shell by wrapping a winding form with one or more tape materials which are at least partially made of superconductor material or comprise superconductor material; producing the inner shell by plastic injection molding using a thermoplastic material which contains a proportion of superconducting particles; producing the inner shell by a casting process using a thermosetting material that contains a proportion of superconducting particles; producing the inner shell by coating an inner surface and/or an outer surface of a container blank with a superconducting material; and wherein in a subsequent step, the inner shell is inserted into the outer shell.

Description

[0026] Advantageous embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawing. Here shows:

[0027] FIG. 1 a first embodiment of an insulating device with an outer shell, an insulating layer, an inner shell, a superconductor and a permanent magnet,

[0028] FIG. 2 a second embodiment of an insulating device, which is designed as a variant of the insulating device according to FIG. 1 and has a modified configuration with regard to the superconductor and the permanent magnet,

[0029] FIG. 3: a third embodiment of an insulating device in which the inner shell is made of a composite material, and

[0030] FIG. 4: a fourth embodiment of an insulating device, in which the outer and inner shells are tubular.

[0031] A first embodiment of an insulating device 1, shown in FIG. 1, is used to store a liquid, for example a liquefied gas such as nitrogen, the insulating device 1 being designed in such a way that the lowest possible heat transfer from an environment of the insulating device 1 into the liquid to be stored is ensured.

[0032] The insulating device 1 comprises, purely by way of example, an inner sleeve 2 in the form of a bottle, which is, for example, rotationally symmetrical with respect to an axis of symmetry 11. The inner sleeve 2 is accommodated in an outer sleeve 3, which is also, purely by way of example, rotationally symmetrical with respect to the axis of symmetry 11 and is at least almost completely enclosed by the outer sleeve 3. By way of example, it is envisaged that the outer shell 3 has a side wall 20 in the form of a circular cylindrical sleeve, a base area 21 in the form of a circular disk and a cover area 22 in the form of a circular ring. It is envisaged that the side wall 20 is preferably formed in one piece with the base area 21 and the cover area 22.

[0033] Furthermore, it is envisaged, by way of example, that the inner shell 2 has a side wall 25 in the form of a circular cylindrical sleeve, a base area 26 in the form of a circular disk and a lid area 27 in the form of a circular ring area 27, wherein a bottle neck 28, which is purely exemplary in the form of a circular cylindrical sleeve, adjoins the cover area 27 and borders a mouth opening 10. It is provided that the bottle neck 28 passes through a recess 23 in the lid area 22 of the outer shell 3.

[0034] An outer diameter of the side wall 25 of the inner shell 2 is chosen to be smaller than an inner diameter of the side wall 20 of the outer shell 3. Furthermore, a distance between the bottom area 26 and the lid area 27 of the inner shell 2 is chosen to be smaller than a distance between the bottom area 21 and the lid area 92 of the outer shell 3. The space between the inner shell 2 and the outer shell 3 is referred to as the insulating space 5. In the insulating space 5, which is preferably evacuated, an insulating film arrangement 15 is provided, which is constructed, for example, from a plurality of insulating film layers (not shown in more detail) and ensures thermal insulation between the outer shell 3 and the inner shell 2.

[0035] In order to ensure that the insulating space 5 is gas-tight, a rotationally symmetrical sealing element 16 is provided, which is fixed both in the recess 23 and on the bottle neck 28. The sealing element 16 is partially designed in the manner of a bellows, thereby enabling a linear relative movement along the axis of symmetry 11 between the inner shell 2 and the outer shell 3.

[0036] By way of example, the outer shell 3 and the sealing element 16 are made of a metallic material. The inner shell 2 can optionally be made of a metallic or ceramic or glass-like material or a plastic.

[0037] As can also be seen from FIG. 1, a supporting element 12 is arranged between the bottom area 26 of the inner shell 2 and the bottom area 21 of the outer shell 3, which is intended to support the weight of the inner shell 2. As an example, the supporting element 12 is made of a foam material, in particular an elastically deformable foam material, with low thermal conductivity. In order to ensure a force-transmitting connection between the inner shell 2 and the outer shell 3, the supporting element 12 is intended to pass through the insulating film arrangement 15, which is provided with a recess 17 for this purpose.

[0038] A superconductor arrangement 6 is arranged on an inner surface 30 of the inner shell 2, while a permanent magnet 7 is arranged on an outer surface 31 of the inner shell 2. In this case, the superconductor arrangement 6 comprises, purely by way of example, two cuboid superconductors 35, which are arranged in the base region 26. The permanent magnet 7 comprises, purely by way of example, four permanent magnets 36 which are arranged on the side wall 25 so as to project radially outwards.

[0039] On an inner surface 24 of the outer shell 3, cuboid permanent magnets 37 are arranged on both the side wall 20 and the base area 21, as an example. A total of six permanent magnets 37 are arranged on the outer shell, with the permanent magnets 37 arranged on the base area 21 being arranged vertically below the superconductors 35, as shown in FIG. 1. The permanent magnets 37 attached to the side wall 20 are arranged radially outwards adjacent to the permanent magnets 36 of the inner shell 2 but are located closer to the bottom area 21 than the permanent magnets 36.

[0040] When the inner shell, which is in the form of a bottle, is filled with a substance that has a temperature below the transition temperature of the superconductors 35, the superconductors 35 at the bottom area 26 of the inner shell 2 are brought into a superconducting state by contact with the substance, whereby the magnetic fields of the permanent magnets 37 arranged opposite on the bottom area 21 of the outer shell 3 are stored in the superconducting elements 35 by pinning. When the inner shell 2 is filled further, the increasing weight causes an elastic deformation of the supporting element 12 and thus a change in the distance between the superconductors 35 and the opposing permanent magnets 37, which causes reaction forces between the superconductors 35 and the permanent magnets 37 that counteract this linear displacement of the inner shell.

[0041] Furthermore, the permanent magnets 36, which are slightly spaced apart in the vertical direction, and the permanent magnets 37, which are attached to the side wall of the outer shell 3, interact magnetically and thus form a magnetically pre-stressed system. If the weight of the inner shell 2 increases further due to further filling with the cold substance, a possible linear displacement of the inner shell 2 with respect to the outer shell 3 will result in an increase in the magnetic interaction between the permanent magnets 36 and 37, so that an additional supporting effect in the vertical direction is produced for the inner shell 2.

[0042] The superconductors 35, the permanent magnets 36 and 37, the supporting element 12 and the sealing element 16 are preferably coordinated with one another in such a way that the majority of the supporting forces for the inner shell are produced by contactless magnetic interaction between the superconductor 6 and the permanent magnet 7. This means that the supporting element 12 and the sealing element 16 can be designed to be as filigree or thin walled as possible, thus allowing only a small amount of heat to enter the insulating space 5.

[0043] In the second embodiment according to FIG. 2, the same reference signs are used for functionally identical components as in the first embodiment according to FIG. 1. In contrast to the Insulating device 1 according to FIG. 1, the inner shell 2 of the Insulating device 41 is equipped exclusively with superconductors 35. Furthermore, a supporting element 42 is provided, which is shaped in the manner of a rotationally symmetrical bellows. The supporting element 42 is preferably made of a material or a combination of materials that causes the supporting element 42 to shorten when the temperature falls below a predeterminable temperature, in particular when the transition temperature of the superconductors 35 is undershot. If it is also provided that the supporting element 42 is attached to the underside of the inner shell 2, a supporting effect by the supporting element 42 and thus a thermally conductive coupling between the inner shell 2 and the outer shell 3 can be eliminated as soon as the critical temperature of the superconductors 35 is undershot by filling a cold substance into the working space 4 of the inner shell 2 and the superconductors 35 are in magnetic interaction with the permanent magnets 37, so that no support of the inner shell 2 by the supporting element 42 is required anymore. If the inner shell 2 is heated again above the transition temperature of the superconductors 35 at a later point in time, the length of the supporting element 42 also changes again to the length expansion as shown in FIG. 2. This ensures that the inner shell 2 is supported again by the supporting element 42 at this point in time.

[0044] In the third embodiment according to FIG. 3, the same reference signs are used for functionally identical components as in the first embodiment according to FIG. 1. The insulating device 51 differs from the insulating device 1 in that the inner shell 52 is made of a composite material, for example as a winding body, which is not described in detail. It is envisaged that the composite material of the inner shell 52 contains a predeterminable proportion of superconducting material, so that no additional superconducting elements are required to cause a magnetic interaction between the inner shell 52 and the permanent magnets 37 on the outer shell 3. For additional support of the inner shell 52 and a liquid contained therein, permanent magnets 36 can be provided on the inside at the bottom of the inner shell 52 and on the outer surface 31 of the inner shell 52. These are intended for magnetic interaction with permanent magnets 37, which are each arranged adjacent to the permanent magnets 36 and are also partially fixed to the outer surface of the outer shell 3.

[0045] In the fourth embodiment according to FIG. 4, the same reference signs are used for functionally identical components as in the first embodiment according to FIG. 1. The insulating device 61 is designed as a section of piping in which both the inner shell 62 and the outer shell 63 have a constant, for example circular, profile along a profile section 73. Accordingly, sealing connections are provided between the inner shell 62 and the outer shell 63 at opposite end regions of the insulating device 61, in each case using a sealing element 16.

[0046] Superconductors 68, preferably arranged at regular intervals along the axis of symmetry 11, are arranged in a circular ring shape on an outer surface 75 of the inner shell 62, purely by way of example. Permanent magnets 69 are arranged in the radial direction opposite the superconductors 68, which are designed as ring magnets and are fixed to an inner surface 74 of the outer shell 63. The insulating film arrangement 76 is adapted to the diameter of the inner shell 62 and the outer shell 63, which diameter is reduced compared with the other insulating devices 1, 41 and 51.