ISOLATION OR INSULATION? HOW A CRAZY TEST FORCED US TO UP OUR GAME!
When you’re doing a new design it is often surprising how much you learn about both the limitations and the opportunities with the current technology. Early on we came to understand the ANVIL is a beast. The significant thermal mass associated with our patented copper core oven, US11,399,574, has to be attended to with some care. When we started the 8mm interface, because we no longer have the stem acting as a heat sink, the heat had to be dealt with another way. One’s first thought might be to add additional insulation. In the ANVIL the o-rings do provide provide significant thermal INSULATION as well as the mechanical fixation. That said, if we relied exclusively on the o-ring insulation the ANVIL would become unworkably hot. This is why we introduced two additional types of thermal breaks in the form of
- regions that neck down and thin the structural metal significantly reducing heat transport and
- horizontal air slots that actually prevent heat transport.
In the herb chambers the slots or logos block conduction heat from cooking the herb during heatup. In the CopperCore oven the slots not only protect the o-rings but do double duty as the air intakes. Take a look at your own oven and you will see how sharply the colour change stops at the intake air slots because the heat can only advance along the three thin pillars.
So what’s the “crazy test” alluded to in the title? I felt that we would be confident ANVIL’s heat was adequately managed, and that the o-rings were staying well within their thermal ratings, if I could hold onto the 8mm adapter for a full heat cycle from the onset heat-up with the torch, through the heat-up clicks and then hold on, WITHOUT LETTING GO, until the cool down clicks. Now the 8mm adapter does get warm, even a bit hot, but I did not need to let go! And neither will you when you get your own 8mm adapter to play with.
We are machining the isolation slots starting tomorrow on a new five axis horizontal milling machine. I’m excited because we now have access to very high speed, 20,000 rpm, spindle which will let us use smaller end mills to cut tiny slots in spaces we couldn’t dream of last year. We should have our first batch of adapters and adapter kits available for sale by Wednesday. Please remember our original goal for the 8mm adapter was only to support wooden or glass stems but with these new thermal management innovations I believe we will be able to support a variety of metal stems as well.
CAUTION:
That said a very real source of stem heat-up is from convection when you draw the vapour through the stem during inhalation. There is a large heat content in the vapour itself that will convectively heat your stem and may result in it getting uncomfortably hot. We are not able to guarantee that the ANVIL 8mm adapter will work with any specific stem so if you are not adventurous and up for the science maybe wait a bit to see if other folks have success.
CHEERS
JOHN