A method for producing a thermoformed product on a single machine with several stations and with different tools includes the following steps: (a) melting and homogenizing plastic granules and providing the plastic melt at a preform station; (b) producing a preform at the preform station in a preform cavity; (c) transferring the preform by a transfer carrier to a thermoforming station at the same machine, the thermoforming station having a thermoforming tool having a thermoforming cavity; (d) preferably heating the preform during the transfer; (e) thermoforming of the thermoformed product in the thermoforming cavity. Advantageously, the final thermoformed product is produced directly from the plastic granules using only a single machine, and in particular without any waste, when the preform is dimensioned in such a way that it does not present any excess with respect to the final shape of the product to be produced.

A device for manufacturing a stiffened panel with reinforcements which each have a final thickness and a final height. The manufacturing device includes tools configured to each support a preform of fibers having a U-shaped or C-shaped cross section with a base and two wings. Each tool comprises, at at least one of its first and second lateral faces, a set-back portion which, when two tools are juxtaposed, delimits a recess configured to form a reinforcement during a consolidation or polymerization step. The tools are dimensioned such that each recess has a width, at the consolidation or polymerization temperature, that is substantially equal to the thickness of the reinforcements. This solution makes it possible to more effectively control the geometry of the stiffened panel by avoiding the formation of beads. A method for manufacturing a stiffened panel using the device is also disclosed.

A punch pin hole inspection apparatus and method uses a punch and a die capable of checking defects or damage, specifically pin holes or microcracks, due to shaping immediately after finishing shaping a laminate sheet into a battery case using the punch.

A method and apparatus is presented. A portion is cut from a thermoplastic sheet of a first thermoplastic material based on a three dimensional model. The portion is secured to a mold. The portion and the mold are heated under vacuum to form a structure. The structure may take the form of a protective covering. In some illustrative examples, the mold may be formed of a second thermoplastic material based on the three dimensional model using additive manufacturing.

An apparatus for manufacturing a pouch includes a die in which a pair of forming grooves are formed with a partition wall therebetween in a top surface thereof; and a pair of punches disposed above the die configured to form a pair of accommodation parts in a pouch film while being respectively inserted into the pair of forming grooves in a state of pressing the pouch film, wherein a pressing surface of each of the punches, which is configured to press the pouch film, has an inclined angle that is inclined upward from one end thereof disposed at a side of the partition wall toward an opposite end thereof.

A system and method are provided for implementing a process by which printed rolls of substrate material web have additional material layers interleaved between the rolled material web layers to substantially eliminate back transfer or roll offset of printed images on the back sides of the rolled material substrates. In a process for pre-printing thermoforming grade plastic materials to produce rolls of substrate material for use in a thermoforming process, ink compositions, particularly adapted for the thermoforming process, are deposited on substantially continuous webs of substrate material. The webs of substrate material are then re-rolled with separate layers of low surface energy substrate material interleaved between the layers of the printed substrate material in order to substantially eliminate imaging defects produced by back transfer of printed images on to the backs of layers of the printed substrate material stored in rolls.

To solve the above problem, a pouch forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a die in which a forming space is recessed inward from a top surface thereof; a partition wall partitioning the forming space into first and second forming spaces; a stripper disposed above the die and configured to descend to contact the die with the pouch film therebetween to fix the pouch film to be seated on a top surface of the die; and an electromagnetic force generation part disposed above the forming space and configured to generate electromagnetic force and configured to apply the electromagnetic force to the forming space.

Methods and systems for vacuum forming to form a final plastic product defining a notch, including providing a plastic material; providing a mold for a preform plastic product from which to form the final plastic product having a sacrificial forming feature associated with forming an inline trimmable part defining a notch area from which to form the notch, the sacrificial forming feature positioned on the mold within the notch area to be trimmed via an inline trimming operation to form the notch and shaped to selectively reduce a material thickness at a selective remaining location of the preform plastic product; disposing the plastic material on the mold to form an assembly; applying vacuum forming to the assembly to form the preform plastic product; and reducing the material thickness at the selective remaining location of the preform plastic product during vacuum forming to affect a corresponding localized stiffness reduction.

A method for forming an article includes providing a sheet of material, optionally conditioning the sheet with a surface of a roller, forming the sheet to provide a web, and separating an article from the web to provide the article. An apparatus adapted to form the article from a sheet is provided.

Articles of wear having one or more textiles that include a low processing temperature polymeric composition and a high processing temperature polymeric composition, and methods of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The low processing temperature polymeric composition and the high processing temperature polymeric composition can be selectively incorporated into a textile to provide one or more structural properties and/or other advantageous properties to the article. The textile can be thermoformed to impart such structural and/or other advantageous properties to the article of wear. 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.