Methods for manufacturing articles, including articles of footwear, apparel, and sporting equipment are provided. The methods comprise decorating a plurality of foam particles. The decorating can comprise applying a coating on the foam particles, or embossing or debossing the foam particles, or both. The decorating can comprise applying a coating on the foam particles by printing, painting, dyeing, applying a film, or any combination thereof. The plurality of foam particles are affixed utilizing aspects of additive manufacturing methods. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

Methods of forming polymeric foams are provided. The methods may involve co-extruding a foam layer along with one or more skin layers. In some embodiments, the skin layer(s) may be removed (e.g., in a peeling operation); while, in other embodiments, the skin layer(s) may form part of the final article. The methods are particularly well suited for producing polymeric foams from polymeric materials that are considered to be difficult to foam by those of skill in the art.

The present invention pertains to a process for the manufacture of a dense film. The process includes processing, in a molten phase, a solid composition [composition (C)] comprising; at least one vinylidene fluoride (VDF) fluoropolymer comprising one or more carboxylic acid functional end groups [polymer (F)], at least one poly(alkylene oxide) (PAO) of formula (I):
HO—(CH.sub.2CHR.sub.AO).sub.n—R.sub.B  (I) wherein R.sub.A is a hydrogen atom or a C.sub.1-C.sub.5 alkyl group, R.sub.B is a hydrogen atom or a —CH.sub.3 alkyl group and n is an integer comprised between 2000 and 40000, preferably between 4000 and 35000, more preferably between 11500 and 30000, and -optionally, at least one inorganic filler [filler (I)]; thereby providing a dense film having a thickness of from 5 μm to 30 μm. The present invention also pertains to the dense film provided by this process and to the use of the dense film as dense separator in electrochemical devices.

The invention refers to a method for producing expanded polymer pellets, which comprises the following steps: melting a polymer comprising a polyamide; adding at least one blowing agent; expanding the melt through at least one die for producing an expanded polymer; and pelletizing the expanded polymer. The invention further concerns polymer pellets produced with the method as well as their use, e.g. for the production of cushioning elements for sports apparel, such as for producing soles or parts of soles of sports shoes. A further aspect of the invention concerns a method for the manufacture of molded components, comprising loading pellets of an expanded polymer material into a mold, and connecting the pellets by providing heat energy, wherein the expanded polymer material of the pellets or beads comprises a chain extender. The molded components may be used in broad ranges of application.

In an embodiment, a method for preparing expanded hexagonal boron nitride comprises mixing a boron compound and a carbon template in an organic solvent; removing the organic solvent to provide a dried mixture of the boron compound and the carbon template; exposing the dried mixture to a nitrogen-containing gas under conditions effective to provide a crude product comprising hexagonal boron nitride; removing the carbon template from the crude product to provide the expanded hexagonal boron nitride.

The present invention relates to an extrudable polymer composition comprising: 99.5 to 99.95% of at least one hard-soft block copolymer comprising: at least 25% by weight of soft block polyethylene glycol (PEG) with functionality equal to 2, with respect to the total weight in copolymer; from 0.05 to 0.5% by weight of at least one polyol comprising at least three hydroxyl groups, with respect to the total weight of the composition; characterised in that: the weight-average molecular mass of said copolymer is at least equal to 100,000 g/mol; and the weight-average molecular mass of the polyol is at least equal to 1000 g/mol; and said at least one polyol binding hard copolymer blocks by ester bonds. This invention relates in particular to the use of said composition in extrusion processes for manufacturing vapour-permeable objects.

A polymer material suitable for three-dimensional printing that may include at least one of polyether block amide, thermoplastic polyeurothane, and thermoplastic olefin. The polymer is formed through chemical precipitation forming a precipitated pulverulent polymer which possesses increased operating window characteristics selected from the group consisting at least one of a wider than typical range between and among the melting and recrystallization temperatures, a larger enthalpy upon melting, and a low volumetric change during recrystallization.

A molded member containing a thermoplastic material and a substrate, wherein at least a portion of the substrate is coupled to the thermoplastic material via a silicon-containing linker, and a respiratory apparatus containing the molded member are disclosed. A respiratory apparatus containing a molded member, wherein the molded member contains a thermosetting material and a substrate, and wherein at least a portion of the substrate is coupled to the thermosetting material via a silicon-containing linker is also disclosed.

A method for preparing block polyether amide foamed particles with sandbag structure includes: premixing modifier, filler and coupling agent, melting and blending the premixed raw materials, and preparing blended particles I with core-shell structure after underwater granulation or water tank granulation; premixing the blended particles I with block polyether amide raw material, melting and blending the premixed raw material, and preparing block polyether amide blended particles II with sandbag structure after underwater granulation or water tank cutting; putting the quantitative blended particle II into an autoclave, introducing quantitative environment-friendly physical foaming agent until the foaming agent and G2 blende particles reach a homogeneous system, evacuating autoclave pressure through a valve, and taking out block polyether amide blended particles III containing the foaming agent; and transferring the blended particles III into a thermostatic equipment at softening temperature of particles, and obtaining the block polyether amide foamed particles after heat preservation.

Provided is a method to recycle valuable materials included in a photovoltaic module having a resin back sheet or the like, for efficiently and easily recovering the valuable materials by removing the resin components from the photovoltaic module. The method of recovering valuable materials from a photovoltaic module, includes: a loading step of loading a photovoltaic module (X) having a resin back sheet and a sealing resin layer on a heat-resistant porous molded body (A) with the back sheet surface facing down; and a heating step of heating a load including the photovoltaic module (X) and the porous molded body (A) in a heating furnace in an oxidizing atmosphere to melt and then combust the resin components.