A fin sealer and method to seal a radially outwardly directed fin of a tubular web structure by directing the fin through a nip between a first and a second fin sealing rollers while communicating heat to the fin through at least one of the fin sealing rollers is provided. The fin sealer is configured to maintain a nominal face-to-face relation between an outer annulus of the first fin sealing roller and an outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller with a flexible connection between a hub element of the second fin sealing roller with the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller.

A film pasting tool is used to paste one surface of a film on a member-to-be-pasted at a predetermined position. The tool comprises a flexible tabular body, a first adhesive part, a front surface thereof being adhesive, provided on one surface of the body, and a second adhesive part, a front surface thereof being adhesive, provided on a part of a region other than a region where the first adhesive part is provided out of one surface of the body. An other surface of the film is pastable on the front surface of the second adhesive part, and when the other surface of the film is pasted on the front surface of the second adhesive part, the front surface of the first adhesive part is exposed in such a manner that the front surface of the first adhesive part is pastable on the member-to-be-pasted.

An applicator mitt assembly system comprises an applicator mitt tooling including: a tooling body having a mitt-perimeter cutter and weld bead thereon which are shaped to a perimeter of a mitt to be cut; a heating element associated with the tooling body which is shaped so as to substantially match a shape of the weld bead to create a perimeter weld for the mitt when engaged with the tooling body; and an ejector platen which is actuatable relative to the tooling body to eject a cut and welded mitt. A conveyor device is adapted to feed mitt material towards the tooling and a tooling actuator adapted to actuate the tooling relative to the conveyor device to allow the cutter to cut mitt material at the conveyor device. A discrete applicator mitt tooling, method of assembling an applicator mitt, and welded applicator mitt are also provided.

A seal head assembly includes a plurality of heat seal plates defining a corresponding plurality of heating areas, each heat seal plate including a heating element to independently control the temperature of the corresponding heating area.

A method for making a connection between a pair of objects includes using a fixture to hold in place shims used to control the gap thickness between the objects. The gap may be subsequently filled with adhesive that that is then cured. The fixture may be a flexible piece of material that is able to withstand the cure environment, for example being able to withstand heat used to cure the adhesive. The fixture may facilitate maintaining the proper gap by holding the shims in their proper places and orientation until the adhesive is cured and the shims are removed. The use of the fixture may improve the uniformity of the gap at less effort, and may reduce defects in the adhesive layer, for example by facilitating removal of the shims without disturbing or damaging the adhesive, such as by pulling the shims straight out of their locations in the gap.

A panel may be formed with mandrels inside of stiffening members. The panel may be coupled to a panel holding jig. A winch may be coupled to the mandrels. The winch may pull the mandrels out of the stiffening members and into curved tracks.

A method, medium, and system to receive an indication of an assembly including a plurality of different components to produce by additive manufacturing (AM), determine based on a forward search process that starts with individual components of the plurality of components and iteratively adds other components of the plurality of components thereto in combinations until an entirety of the assembly is accounted for, determine based on a reverse search process that starts with the entirety of the assembly and iteratively removes components of the plurality of components therefrom in combinations until a two-component set is reached, automatically select an optimal combination of the plurality of components from the combinations determined by the forward search and reverse search processes; and transmit the selection of the optimal combination of the plurality of components to an AM controller.

A panel may be formed with mandrels inside of stiffening members. The panel may be coupled to a panel holding jig. A winch may be coupled to the mandrels. The winch may pull the mandrels out of the stiffening members and into curved tracks.

A panel may be formed with mandrels inside of stiffening members. The panel may be coupled to a panel holding jig. A winch may be coupled to the mandrels. The winch may pull the mandrels out of the stiffening members and into curved tracks.

A fin sealer and method to seal a radially outwardly directed fin of a tubular web structure by directing the fin through a nip between a first and a second fin sealing rollers while communicating heat to the fin through at least one of the fin sealing rollers is provided. The fin sealer is configured to maintain a nominal face-to-face relation between an outer annulus of the first fin sealing roller and an outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller with a flexible connection between a hub element of the second fin sealing roller with the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller.