Colin Quinney wrote: > Does ( or can ) the manufacturing method of 65 inch wide Fresnel sheeting > focus a trough line? This would allow a pipe to be placed at the focal > point. Could a pipe would get hot enough to run liquid salt ? - most > probably not - but I'm sure there are other ideas out there for working > fluids..
The type of linear fresnel for focusing a trough line would be the easiest for my machinery to manufacture, by far. 3M manufactures such film already, but last time I checked it was about 100 times as expensive as mine would be. Their material is acrylic and has very little tensile strength. This, I presume, is why their film is designed to be bent into a cylinder shape to provide it with some structural integrity. And BTW, Jones, that appears to be what is being used at that Entech outfit, unless I looked at the wrong picture. > How hot that pipe would get I guess would depend on the absorption > characteristics of the pipe metal, insulation, the width of the Fresnel, > latitude, etc Well yes, but picture this. Similar to my other sectional scheme, I could run a 65 inch wide half cylinder fresnel and the two strips of this could be attached at the edge to form a 130 inch (3.3 meter) wide strip. Now surely you could do some really hot work with that. > I sense your hesitancy to promote your own product but I believe that the > potential importance of a product such as this requires that in this > instance that > those rules be temporarily suspended or bent, and my sense is that most here > would concur with that assessment.. Aye, there's the rub. I am not sure, but it's a reasonable guess that my company is already the largest producer in the world of fresnel lenses in terms of square footage per year. But at the moment, all of this is arrays of relatively small metallized negative lenses for decorative purposes. The people on this list may concur with your assessment, but out there in the world of real business, it's quite another story. And here's the other rub. The diamond machined original molds for this stuff are expensive as holy hell. The one I used for that Guinness World Records cover was only about 4 inches (100mm) in diameter and cost me $7,000. I'm almost afraid to ask what the really big ones cost. I can, however, do an experimental cheap-out. I am able to use the plastic fresnels already out there in the market place as originals. For example, all those large screen rear-projection TVs have a fresnel as part of the screen. In other words, they're as big as the screen. I can buy one of these for a few hundred dollars. In a couple of months, I am going to do an experimental run of these, just to prove it can be done. I can't do this on a commercial basis, as there might be intellectual property issues associated with doing it. I would eventually have to buy one of those diamond machined copper originals. > Please send additional information about your Fresnel material. Product > name, company name, technical descriptions, and quantities vs pricing etc > for those who are interested in exploring further the potentials.. Thank > you. Thanks for your interest. Will send off-list. M. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
