NASA: Insulating Paint Powder Turns Every Color 'Green'--keeps your home warmer or cooler.

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Thermographic image shows areas of high heat loss (red and yellow) from a home. The blue roof indicates good insulation and little heat loss. Image Credit: The Insuladd Company Remember that grade-school riddle, "What's black, white, and red all over?" Depending on who gave you the punch line, the answer was "a sunburned zebra" or "a newspaper."


Here's an updated version: What's every color in the world, but still always green?


The answer is paint that includes an insulating powder that originated at NASA. Widely used on commercial and residential structures, it transforms any color of paint into an environmentally friendly insulation barrier that saves energy and cost.



The solution is simple: mix the powder into any color of interior or exterior paint, then break out the brushes. When spread on walls, ceilings, and roofs, it creates a barrier that deflects the sun's heat away from the house, plus it helps keep heating and air conditioning where they belong. This reduced need for energy is not only cost-effective, but also a kindness to the environment -- an easy way to create your own "green house effect."


Many businesses use insulating paint to coat air-conditioning ducts, steam pipes and fittings, metal buildings, and cold storage facilities, such as walk-in coolers and freezers. For example, Purina Feeds uses a version of the insulating powder to cover storage silos, helping to prevent feed spoilage. The poultry industry uses it to help regulate the climate inside its hatcheries. Samsung applies it on military vehicles, and Hyundai Corporation's shipbuilding division paints it onto ships. It's even been used to insulate electrical switch boxes on the outside of fighters jets to prevent overheating.


Thermal image of an energy-efficient building that shows up in cool blues and greens. The building in the background glows yellow and red as heat is being lost. Image Credit: The Insuladd Company
This simple but powerful solution all began with space shuttle launches. During a launch, heat generated by wind resistance and engine exhaust can potentially be very damaging. In the 1980s, engineers at the Marshall Center developed a spray-on process to apply an insulating mixture to help protect the shuttle. The process involved mixing nine different chemicals into an adhesive that was applied to the boosters' forward assembly, systems tunnel covers, and aft skirt.


But there were challenges. Once the insulating material was mixed, it had to be applied within five hours. Any delay meant a batch of expensive materials was lost, requiring the time and cost to mix a new batch. The strength of the insulating material was also difficult to regulate, meaning it could chip during the shuttle's flight and splashdown of its reusable booster rockets. Adding to the downside, two of the nine ingredients in the insulating mix weren't environmentally friendly.


In 1993, Marshall created a solution by atomizing epoxy and other filler materials to create a fine, environmentally friendly insulation powder. The material -- known as MCC-1, or Marshall Convergent Coating-1 -- contained tiny, hollow glass spheres and particles of cork and epoxy. The application process was also changed. Instead of mixing the insulating powder directly into the paint, it was shot from a spray gun at the same time the paint was applied. This change in process eliminated the five-hour "time clock" to complete the painting.


The improved, eco-friendly insulation powder was first flight tested in 1996 on the STS-79 mission. It was so successful that it was adopted for all subsequent shuttle flights, with virtually no observed missing or chipped paint on the spent boosters during post-flight inspections.


STS-79 shuttle launch. Image Credit: NASA
Bringing the NASA insulation powder to the public market resulted in an innovative partnership with Tech Traders, Inc. Months of testing and development created Insuladd®, a safe, non-toxic powder that can be added to any interior or exterior paint to transform it into a layer of insulation.


The powder contains hollow, microscopic ceramic spheres, and a unique process applies a coating to these "microspheres." When the paint dries, it forms a radiant heat barrier, converting ordinary house paint into heat-reflecting thermal paint.


You might say that NASA's contributions to insulating paint can keep green in your world AND in your wallet. That's a good reason to be tickled pink.

Ceramic Paint Additive
Makes any Paint Insulate

"Often imitated but Never Duplicated!" Now you can make Any Paint...
A radiant heat reflecting, insulating, thermal barrier coating


HY-TECH ceramic insulating paint additive is a fine, white powder blend of high strength ceramic "microspheres". Each single ceramic microsphere is so small that it looks to the naked eye as if it is a single grain of flour, ( slightly thicker than a human hair).




The microspheres in the HY-TECH insulating ceramic additive have compressive strengths up to 6,000 psi, a softening point of about 1800° C., and they are fairly chemical resistant, with low thermal conductivity of 0.1 W / m / Deg.C.
The scientific process went one step farther and improved on the ceramic microspheres by removing all the gas inside which created a vacuum. Physics law states that nothing can move by conduction through a vacuum, since it represents an absence of matter. In effect we have a miniature thermos bottle... a microscopic hollow vacuum sphere that resists thermal conductivity and reduces the transfer of sound.

When mixed into paint the painted surface dries to a tightly packed layer of the hard, hollow "microspheres", ( Hy-Tech's exclusive CVM, ceramic vacuum matrix technology.) The tightly packed film reflects and dissipates heat by minimizing the path for the transfer of heat. The ceramics are able to reflect, refract and block heat radiation (loss or gain) and dissipate heat rapidly preventing heat transfer through the coating with as much as 90% of solar infrared rays and 85% of ultra violet-rays being radiated back into the atmosphere.

Hy-Tech insulating additive is completely inert and can be mixed into ANY paint, coating or composite including interior house paint, exterior house paint, roof paint, solvent base coating, epoxy, urethane, high temperature paint, elastomerics, mastics etc. The addition of the ceramics to any material provides improved fire resistance, protection of coated surfaces from harmful UV rays, repulsion of chewing insects and increased durability of the coating due to the hard ceramic finish. Ceramic filled paint is easier to clean and lasts far longer than conventional paint pigments.




Additional Benefits of Hy-Tech Insulating Ceramics Hard ceramics provide longer lasting durability which means you paint less often.
Exceptional stain and scrub resistance
Ceramics are Non-Toxic & Fire Resistant
Helps deaden sound
Use on Interior or Exterior
Environmentally Friendly
Reduces heat and cooling loss!
A hard smooth surface that resists corrosion, abrasion, mold and mildew.

Hy-Tech Insulating Additive, the smart choice.
A great majority of ceramic and glass "microspheres" or "beads" being produced today are for applications ranging from medical, electronic and every day household use each having different chemical and physical properties. Many of these applications require ceramics that will actually INCREASE  the transfer of heat.
Hy-Tech insulating ceramics are selected for their chemical compatibility with paints and coatings and their ability to block the transfer of heat. Hy-Tech insulating ceramics are not a waste by-product of some other industry nor are they an inexpensive filler as are many of the insulating paint additives being marketed today. We have seen dark dirty gray ceramics, thick gritty ceramics, and fragile glass beads intended for use as inexpensive fillers in plastics all being marketed as "Insulating Additives for Paint".
Don't be fooled by biased "in-house" testing results or "modified" American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) test procedures, ( there are no approved "R value" tests for insulating paints or additives at this time and the ASTM Society does not approve of "modified" test procedures. )
Infomation on the R-value testing rule can be found at the Government's website:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/eande/ - (Opens in new window)
An example of a FTC complaint against false R-value claims can be viewed at:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2002/06/krytoncmp.htm - (Opens in new window)
FTC regulations and definitions of R-values are located here:
http://www3.ftc.gov/bcp/rulemaking/rvalue/16cfr460.htm - (Opens in new window)
Buy from the company who started it all, ( our researchers began formulating insulating coatings in the early 70's ), a company who specializes in insulating paints and thermal reduction coatings, and the ONLY Insulating Paint Additive



SELECTED by NASA.
" I went to the Home & Garden show here in St. Louis this past spring. NASA had a booth there and your product was one of many that was on display. I told them I had been interested in purchasing your product, but you can never be sure about all the stuff you see on the internet. They said your product was the real deal and when I was ready to buy, to tell you that NASA sent me. So, here I am...NASA sent me!"
Wendy Birgen
Florissant, MO

Basic information about ceramics and their usage:

• Ceramics can be mixed into ANY type of paint or coating. They have also been used successfully with powder coatings, stucco, plastics and composites, and many other types of material.
• Two coats are required for best distribution of the small spheres. Additional coats will provide better results.
• The painted surface will have a slight texture due to the spheres. This is a very fine texture and looks like suede. This slight texture is very effective at hiding small defects on the wall surface.
• Sheen levels in paints are reduced slightly due to the texture created. Flat paints are not affected.
• Ceramics are most effective at reflecting heat back to the source. For best results in summer...apply to the outside surfaces. For best results in winter...apply to the inside surfaces.
• The addition of a Radiant Barrier coating as a first coat can improve results dramatically
• The ceramic product will not change the color of your paint. Only in some cases of very dark colors being used, has the shade of paint been lightened slightly. If this happens you simply apply a top coat of the dark color with no ceramics added.
• Ceramics will last indefinitely if stored in a dry environment.

LINK: Hy-Tech, where Thermal Solutions are our business and our Only Business.