Patent ID: 8161645

Claim:
A method for the production of a vacuum solar thermal panel comprising a vacuum envelope defining a sealed volume which is able to withstand atmospheric pressure when evacuated, said vacuum envelope comprising a first plate made of glass and a metallic peripheral belt, said method comprising: providing a vacuum tight glass-metal seal between the first plate and the metallic peripheral belt; disposing glass material close to the edge of the peripheral belt, heated above its melting temperature and subsequently cooled to below said temperature, in order to allow the glass material to adhere to both sides of the metallic peripheral belt and join the metallic peripheral belt to the first plate; providing a frit glass paste comprising flit glass material and a binder; placing the flit glass paste on the top of the surface of the first plate, to form a continuous ribbon; inserting the edge of the peripheral belt in the ribbon of the flit glass paste, contacting also the surface of the first glass plate; heating the flit glass paste and melting the flit glass paste to form a meniscus of fused frit glass on one or more sides of the peripheral belt; and cooling and solidifying the flit glass thus providing a compression vacuum tight bulk glass-metal seal between the first plate and the metallic peripheral belt.