A foamed thermoplastic material includes a thermoplastic material exhibiting, in its unfoamed state, a particular flammability index, flame growth rate, and specific extinction area. The foamed thermoplastic material further includes a plurality of cells having a number average mean diameter of 5 to 150 micrometers present in an amount effective to provide the foamed thermoplastic material with a density that is 10 to 90 percent of the density of the unfoamed thermoplastic material. The foamed thermoplastic material exhibits a desirable tensile elongation and dielectric constant. A process for forming the foamed thermoplastic material, articles including the foamed thermoplastic material, and an article-forming process are also described.

An insulated wire, having: a single conductor or multiple conductors; an insulating layer on the outer periphery of the single conductor or each of the multiple conductors; and an adhesion layer on the outer periphery of the insulating layer, wherein the thickness of the adhesion layer is 2 to 200 m, wherein a resin constituting the adhesion layer does not have a melting point, wherein the resin constituting the adhesion layer has a tensile modulus of 0.610.sup.7 to 1010.sup.7 Pa at 250 C., and wherein a substance having 2 or more amino groups exists on the surface of the adhesion layer; a coil containing the insulated wire; and an electrical or electronic equipment using the coil.

A flat cable 10 according to the invention has a plurality of arrayed conductors 11; and an insulating layer 12 covering the periphery of the conductors 11 with a coating film, in which the insulating layer 12 includes a plurality of layers, the outermost layer 13 of the insulating layer 12 and the innermost layer 14 contacting the conductors are both formed from polyphenylene sulfide-based resins, and the melting point of the polyphenylene sulfide-based resin constituting the innermost layer 14 is lower by 5 C. or more than the melting point of the polyphenylene sulfide-based resin constituting the outermost layer 13.

An insulated wire having a thermosetting resin layer on the outer periphery of a conductor, and a thermoplastic resin layer on the outer periphery of the thermosetting resin layer, wherein a total thickness of the thermosetting resin layer and the thermoplastic resin layer is 100 m or more and 250 m or less, and a degree of orientation of a thermoplastic resin in said thermoplastic resin layer, that is calculated by the following Formula 1, is 20% or more and 90% or less; a coil and an electric and electronic equipment each having the insulated wire.

Degree of orientation H (%)=[(360-W.sub.n)/360]100 Formula 1 W.sub.n: A half width of orientation peak in the azimuth angle intensity distribution curve by X-ray diffraction n; the number of orientation peak at a angle of 0 or more and 360 or less.

A high-flow polymer composition includes a polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) and a PEEK-PEDEK copolymer. The polymer composition surprisingly exhibits improved toughness while maintaining chemical resistance, making it suitable for the manufacture of shaped articles where a combination of high-flow, impact resistance, and chemical resistance are required.

In order to increase the adhesion of an insulating coating (2) to an electric conductor (1), preferably of copper or aluminum, an insulated electric conductor comprising an electric conductor (1), preferably made of copper or aluminum, with an insulating coating (2) is proposed according to the invention, wherein the insulating coating (2) either comprises at least one insulating layer (3) made of thermoplastic material, or the insulating layer (3) and a plastic-containing intermediate layer (4, 5), obtainable by a method in which the electric conductor (1) is placed under a protective gas atmosphere and is bombarded with ions of the protective gas in a gas plasma in order to remove an oxide layer formed on a surface of the electric conductor (1) and/or to increase the surface energy of the electric conductor (1), and subsequently either the at least one insulating layer (3) or, in the case that the coating (2) comprises the plastic-containing intermediate layer (4, 5), at least the plastic-containing intermediate layer (4, 5) is applied directly to the surface of the electric conductor (1) under a protective gas atmosphere.

An insulated wire, containing: a rectangular conductor; and a thermoplastic resin layer on the rectangular conductor, wherein an adhesion strength between the thermoplastic resin layer and the rectangular conductor for a pair of sides of the rectangular conductor opposed to and an adhesion strength between the thermoplastic resin layer and the rectangular conductor for the other pair of sides of the rectangular conductor opposed to are different from each other.

A transparent conductive film 1 includes, in this order, a transparent substrate 2, a first optical adjustment layer 4, an inorganic layer 5, and a transparent conductive layer 6. The first optical adjustment layer 4 has refractive index nC lower than refractive index nA of the transparent substrate 2, and thickness TC of 10 nm or more and 35 nm or less. The inorganic layer 5 has refractive index nD that is lower than the absolute value |nC1.13| of a value obtained by multiplying the refractive index nC of the first optical adjustment layer 4 by 1.13.

An insulated wire, having at least one thermosetting resin layer and at least one thermoplastic resin layer in this order, as covering layers, on a conductor having a quadrilateral cross-section, wherein, in a coating thickness of the covering layers, in each side to be formed on 4 sides of the quadrilateral cross-section of said insulated wire, a difference between the maximum value and the minimum value is each 20 m or less, and a value of the maximum value divided by the minimum value of the whole sides is 1.3 or more; a motor coil; and an electrical or electronic equipment.

An insulated wire in which fatigue of the insulated wire can be restrained even when the insulated wire is disposed in an automatic transmission or a continuously variable transmission, and is shaken by AT fluid or CVT fluid. The insulated wire includes a conductor and an insulator that covers an outer circumference of the conductor. The cross-sectional area of the conductor is 0.4 mm.sup.2 or less. The insulator contains a polymer having S or F in a main chain, and has a thickness of 0.05 mm or more. The density of the insulated wire is 3.1 g/cm.sup.3 or more. The density of the insulator is preferably 1.5 g/cm.sup.3 or more.