Southwest Research Institute

Saipem S.p.a.

Jerry A Henkener

Marshall L Nuckols

Edward Matthew Patton

Timothy Stewart Rennick

Lawrence Jon Goland

The disclosed invention provides a composition that possesses insulation values approaching that of uncompressed foam neoprene. The liquid composition is incompressible and may be formulated to be neutrally buoyant in water. The composition is suitable for a use in a number of applications where insulation is required, including divers' suits and underwater cabins, such as chambers, submersible hulls, and waterproof housings.

Insulating medium

The present invention is directed to the formation of pressure resistant buoyancy structures with a given buoyancy efficiency at smaller sizes. The invention involves embedding into syntactic foam metallic spheres which preferably are substantially hollow and comprise high strength, high performance, light weight metal alloys which can be precision forged. The weight per unit space of the metallic spheres is less than that of the syntactic foam. As a result, the metallic spheres can decrease the size of the structure required to achieve a desired buoyancy efficiency.

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Canyon Lake, TX, United States of America

Jerry A Henkener