Disclosed is a method for improving vibration damping of a substrate, such as the underbody of an automobile. The method comprises applying a plastisol which comprises a polymeric component, a general purpose plasticizer and a rosin ester resin. The fused plastisol has improved damping behavior as determined using Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis.

In one aspect, a gypsum panel includes a gypsum core, a fiberglass mat, and a wetting agent deposited across an entire thickness of the fiberglass mat. The wetting agent is deposited onto the first fiberglass mat in an uncoated state of the fiberglass mat such that the wetting agent penetrates the entire thickness of the fiberglass mat.

A stretchable composite sheet, wherein pleat-free regions where no pleats are formed are formed between a plurality of pleat formation regions, the sheet being made by a method, wherein non-continuous coating sections are set so as to correspond to form the plurality of pleat formation regions, and non-coating sections are set so as to correspond to form the pleat-free regions, and an intermittent coating is performed on stretchable elastic members (rubber threads). An apparatus for non-continuously and intermittently applying a hot-melt adhesive comprises an intermittent coating unit, which includes a hot-melt supply control device having a valve mechanism and a coating head having slit grooves in which coating areas are formed, and a non-continuous coating unit, which vertically vibrates rubber threads, passing through the coating areas, between a coating position and a non-coating position.

A method for coating a building panel, including applying a first coating fluid including an organic binder on a surface of the building panel to obtain at least one coating layer, and applying barrier components and photocatalytic particles, preferably TiO.sub.2, on the at least one coating layer. Also, a building panel formed by the method.

Methods of reducing the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the Earth's atmosphere during coating operations are provided, as well as a coating composition comprising a carrier and one or more fluorocopolymers. The carrier comprises VOC compounds and the one or more fluorocopolymers is produced by copolymerization of (1) a first monomer selected from the group consisting of hydrofluoroalkenes, (2) a second monomer comprising vinyl ester(s), and (3) a third monomer comprising vinyl ether(s), wherein at least a portion of the vinyl ether monomer is a hydroxyl group-containing vinyl ether, and wherein the one or more fluorocopolymers comprise at least about 70% by weight of the coating composition and the VOC portion of the carrier is not greater than about 30% by weight of the coating composition.

A recording medium, including: an ink-receiving layer configured to receive an ink for inkjet recording; and a transparent sheet having a total luminous transmittance of 50% or more, wherein the recoding medium has a layered structure in which the transparent sheet and the ink-receiving layer are sequentially stacked, and the ink-receiving layer includes a gap-absorption-type ink-receiving layer including a composition including at least inorganic fine particles and polyvinyl alcohol having a weight-average polymerization degree of 2,000 or more and 5,000 or less and a saponification degree of 70 mol % or more and 90 mol % or less.

Provided are a nano structure, a fabrication method thereof, and an application device thereof. The method for fabricating a nano structure includes: forming a substrate; forming a plurality of linkers over the substrate; forming a plurality of metal ions over the linkers; and forming one or more metallic nanoparticles over the linkers.

A method for surface preparation of composite substrates prior to adhesive bonding. A curable surface treatment layer is applied onto a curable, resin-based composite substrate, followed by co-curing. After co-curing, the composite substrate is fully cured but the surface treatment layer remains partially cured. The surface treatment layer may be a resin film or a removal peel ply composed of resin-impregnated fabric. After surface preparation, the composite substrate is provided with a chemically-active, bondable surface that can be adhesively bonded to another composite substrate to form a covalently-bonded structure.

The method of making nanocrystalline cellulose is a flash lyophilized-acidic hydrolysis method for converting cellulosic fibers into nanocrystalline cellulose. Cellulosic fibers are initially ground in a high-speed, rotary grinder to produce ground cellulose fiber. The ground cellulose fiber is then dried to produce dried, ground cellulose, which is then freeze-dried to yield lyophilized cellulose. Pure concentrated sulfuric acid is then added to the lyophilized cellulose at a liquid/solid ratio of 1:1 (vol/wt) to form a cellulosic paste. The cellulosic paste is diluted in either water or absolute ethanol at a liquid/solid ratio of 1:1 (vol/wt) to form a cellulosic solution, which is then filtered under cooling by liquid nitrogen-vapor. The nanocrystalline cellulose precipitate is then washed until neutralization and dried to yield nanocrystalline cellulose.

Exemplary methods, endoscopes, and endoscope sheaths are provided having an integrally formed imaging window. The sheath may comprise thin coiled wires and may be made using a dip-casting process.