To master any field, you need to know the lingo. When it comes to mechanical insulation, there are a lot of specialized terms that define the territory, including “coefficient of expansion,” “punking,” and “mean specific heat.”
To help newbies and veterans get on the same page, the National Mechanical Insulation Committee (NMIC) created an authoritative glossary of terms used in the industry. To read the scores of entries, is to get a crash course in all matters — technical and otherwise — related to insulation. Do you know what “water vapor permeability” means? Check the NMIC glossary to find out.