Patent ID: 6892507

Claim:
A method of manufacturing an insulated wall panel, comprising the steps of: creating a rigid foam block having first and second opposing sides; cutting the foam block to form a plurality of stacked individual foam sheets having first and second sides and a plurality of parallel recesses in the first side; inserting a reinforcing strip having a top and a bottom into each of the plurality of recesses in each of the plurality of sheets; covering the tops of each of the reinforcing strips with a first thin reinforcing layer; bonding the first reinforcing layer to the first side of each of the foam sheets; and bonding a second reinforcing layer to the second side of each of the foam sheets; wherein the step of cutting the foam block includes the steps of: drawing a hotwire frame of substantially equally spaced parallel hot wires through the block from the first side to the second opposing side of the block; simultaneously forming each of the plurality of grooves in the block with each of the hot wires in the of the hotwire frame; and completing a path through the block by substantially simultaneously separating the block into the plurality of sheets.