A duct of fibre material and binder agent, at least two fold lines are present lengthwise for providing a foldability of the duct by weakened material along the fold lines. The duct is pushable into a folded state and the material remembers the original shape and return to its original shape when released from a folded state. A method of manufacturing a duct: applying a web of origin fibre material with binder agent to a core and compressing the web by an outside form under the influence of heat against the core, wherein the core and/or the outside form is provided with a number of lengthwise ridges corresponding to the desired number of fold lines, to a third of the original thickness of the sides and at the ridges a tenth to a twentieth of the original thickness, and in that the fibre and binder agent web weighs 1,5-3 kg/m.sup.2.

A method of making a sandwich-type composite panel having a cellulose-based core and a living hinge from a stack of material is provided. The stack includes first and second reinforced thermoplastic skins, first and second sheets of thermoplastic adhesive and a cellulose-based cellular core disposed between the sheets and the skins. A pressure is applied to the stack after heating the stack wherein the skins are bonded to the core by the sheets to form the composite panel. A portion of the composite panel is crushed at a predetermined location simultaneously with applying the pressure to locally compact and separate the cellular core at the predetermined location to form two side portions of the panel. The heated first skin stretches during the step of crushing while remaining intact between the two side portions. The skins bond together at the predetermined location to form the living hinge.

A thin ribbon spirally wound polymer conduit and method of forming, wherein a helical reinforcing bead is interposed adjacent overlapping layers of ribbon. Further, a method of continuously forming spirally wound conduit wherein a sacrificial layer, preferably having a different base polymer to that of the conduit, is first applied to the former before the conduit is formed overtop.

Provided is a method for producing a micro flow channel chip that is used for a treatment or analysis of a liquid sample, the method being capable of producing a micro flow channel chip with high shape accuracy and high efficiency. The method includes a step of forming a groove on one surface of a base material; a lamination step of forming an adhesive resin layer on at least one surface of a resin film, and thereby obtaining a first laminate; and an adhesion step of arranging the surface of the base material where a groove has been formed and the adhesive resin layer of the first laminate to face each other, and bonding the base material and the first laminate such that the adhesive resin layer covers the groove, in which the glass transition temperature of the adhesive resin layer is 25 C. or lower.

A method for removing matrix from a composite material comprising reinforcement embedded in a matrix and having a thickness bounded by the first surface and a second surface of the composite material. A laser is oriented with a beam axis of the laser approximately perpendicular to the first surface of the composite material. The laser travels over a region of the first surface of the composite material, wherein the laser removes a portion of or the entire thickness of the composite matrix at the region while leaving the reinforcement of the composite material intact.

Methods for creating self-folding materials that change shape in response to grooves created in the surface of the materials and when exposed to a stimuli. A tailored computational design tool, digital fabrication platform and mold for use with the methods also are provided.

A fluid conduit includes a flexible member having a tubular wall and a plurality of geometric segments located adjacent to the tubular wall. The geometric segments are disposed about a central axis of the conduit and spaced apart relative to each other to define a gap therebetween. The gap is sized to be closed by contact between adjacent geometric segments upon a predetermined flexure of the flexible member. A method of forming the conduit includes forming a flexible member with a tubular wall and forming a plurality of grooves about the central axis in the tubular wall. The geometric segments in one embodiment are formed from the intersections of a first plurality of helical grooves formed at a first angle relative to the central axis and a second plurality of helical grooves formed at a second angle mutually opposite from the first angle.

A method of manufacturing a display panel which is operable to enable content to be displayed on a step of an escalator, the method comprising the steps (102) of printing desired advertising content on a surface of a generally rigid plastic sheet; manufacturing (104) a vacuum formed sheet by vacuum forming the printed plastic sheet to fit a desired part of an escalator step profile; trimming (106) the vacuum formed sheet on all four sides; and applying (110) an adhesive substance to an operatively back surface of the vacuum formed sheet.

Disclosed herein is a processing method for forming a plurality of quadrangular prisms on a plate-shaped substrate having a product area. The processing method includes the steps of preparing an excess-sized plate-shaped substrate having an excess area surrounding the product area, cutting the excess-sized plate-shaped substrate in a first direction by using a cutting blade to thereby form a first cut groove extending in the first direction, cutting the excess-sized plate-shaped substrate in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction by using the cutting blade to thereby form a second cut groove extending in the second direction, filling the first cut groove and the second cut groove with a resin, and cutting the excess-sized plate-shaped substrate along the boundary between the product area and the excess area by using the cutting blade to thereby remove the excess area from the excess-sized plate-shaped substrate.

A method of manufacturing a roll of bags includes: moving a layflat tubing from a feed end toward a produce end of a workstation; sealing the layflat tubing to form sealing lines along a width direction of the layflat tubing; punching the layflat tubing to form punching lines along the width direction; spraying, by a coding machine coupled to the workstation, at least one counting mark on the layflat tubing; cutting by the workstation, the layflat tubing along the width direction to form connected bags; and winding the connected bags into the roll of bags. The connected bags are separated by the punching lines, each bag has one of the sealing lines, and at least one bag has the at least one sprayed counting mark that counts its relative position in the roll of bags.