Thermablok^® News Stories

NASA named Thermablok aerogel insulating material to its Top list of products in the newly released edition of “Spinoff,” NASA’s annual premier publication featuring companies that have successfully adapted NASA technologies to everyday products and made them available to average consumers.

On NASA’s Spinoff list, Thermablok joins an esteemed group of companies and technologies that have directly benefitted as a result of the space program. The list includes products in the fields of health, transportation, energy consumption and creation, computer chips, and environmental technologies.

Taking the newly discovered aerogel insulation technology developed by NASA – the highest insulating material in existence – Tampa, Florida-based Thermablok developed a highly efficient, aerogel-based insulating product that may soon become a standard in the building industry.

Aerogel, also referred to as “frozen smoke” has been difficult to adapt to most uses because of its fragility. The patented Thermablok material overcomes this by using a unique fiber to suspend a proprietary formula of aerogel, allowing it to be bent or compressed while retaining its high insulation properties.

One, ¼-inch x 1½-inch strip of Thermablok, added to the edge of each stud before hanging drywall, breaks the conductive “thermal bridging” which occurs through the stud. Thermablok strips can also increase the overall wall R-factor by more than 40- percent (US Department of Energy/JM Laboratories.)

Consisting of more than 95-percent air, Thermablok is virtually weightless, making it easy and inexpensive to ship and install. Made in the USA, Thermablok is 100-percent recyclable, will not age, and being hydrophobic it will not combine with or be affected by water or moisture. An excellent green product for today’s environmentally friendly new construction and retrofits, Thermablok requires no structural or permit changes and anyone can install it.

The honor could not be more fitting for Thermablok, as NASA is dedicating this year’s “Spinoff” issue to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Thermablok uses the same aerogel technology that NASA applies to its space shuttles, astronaut space suits and other space technology. The “Spinoff” also summarizes the ways in which Apollo continues to provide tangible benefits to the lives of people in the U.S. and around the world.

Since 1976, “Spinoff” has featured between 40 and 50 of these commercial products annually. These products are just the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the thousands of products to which NASA’s research and development has contributed. “Spinoff” maintains a searchable database of every technology published since its inception.

“This database is truly inspirational for people of all ages,” said Lahnie Johnson, founder and president of Thermablok and its parent company, Acoustiblok, Inc. For more than 40 years, the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program has promoted the transfer of NASA technology to the private sector in an effort to benefit worldwide competition as well as the nation’s economy.

Johnson, an inventor, entrepreneur, and former aerospace associate, is an enthusiastic proponent of NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program.

“The results of the space program have contributed immensely to products and technology we all take for granted in our daily lives,” he said.

For more information regarding Thermablok, visit our website at www.thermablok.com, e-mail us at [email protected], or call us at 813-980-1400.