A method is provided for the production of an electrical or electronic component having a conductor element with two contact points and a plastic structure injection-molded thereon. A strip-type metal substrate, having multiple conductor element blanks and a carrier structure, is provided. Grooved depressions are produced on all peripheral surfaces of the blanks on a texturing section with one or two laser light sources. With a single laser light source the grooved depressions are produced on at least two primary peripheral surfaces which adjoin one another and form a common edge such that a multiplicity of the grooved depressions extends without interruption continuously into the primary peripheral surfaces. A conductor element blank is separated from the carrier structure. The resulting conductor element is encapsulated with plastic by injection molding on all peripheral surfaces within a section to be encapsulated. The plastic structure thereby formed extends into the grooved depressions.

Methods and apparatus are provided for the production of thermoplastic composite sheets whose fibers are other than perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the sheet and which are capable of being slit into sheets, strips and/or tapes of custom widths.

A device and a method for applying cover sheets to cross-bottoms of tubular sections made of a plastic material. The device includes conveyor devices for transporting the tubular sections and for depositing the cover sheets on the cross-bottoms in a deposit area. The device includes a hot gas device with a gas heater and a nozzle connected to the gas heater and oriented toward the deposit area for the cover sheets so when gas is supplied to the gas heater, the gas flows along a flow path from the gas supply through the gas heater and the nozzle into the deposit area. The hot gas device has a hot gas reservoir with an internal volume for the temporary storage of hot gas, the flow path running through the hot gas reservoir. A gas mass flow ({dot over (m)}1, {dot over (m)}2, {dot over (m)}ges) of gas supplied to the gas heater is adjustable by a control.

A resin frame includes frame members combined into a frame shape that includes a corner portion, and a joint portion joining a pair of the frame members which are adjacent to each other at the corner portion. The joint portion includes an entire-surface welded portion, in which end surfaces of the pair of the frame members are welded to each other over an entire surface in a thickness direction of a plate portion of the frame members, and a partial welded portion, in which the end surfaces of the pair of the frame members are welded to each other on one side of the entire surface in the thickness direction while another side of the entire surface in the thickness direction is not welded. The entire-surface welded portion and the partial welded portion are present at different portions on an outer periphery of the joint portion.

An automated fiber bundle placement apparatus including a placing head configured to place each of fiber bundles onto a placement die and including a plurality of conveying mechanisms each configured to convey the fiber bundle toward a pressing part configured to press the fiber bundles onto the placement die, a plurality of guidance mechanisms each including a guide roller for guiding the fiber bundle toward the conveying mechanism, and a frame attached to a multi-jointed robot configured to move the placing head and provided with the conveying mechanisms and the guidance mechanisms. The frame is constituted by a main frame part provided with the conveying mechanisms and attached to the multi-jointed robot and a sub-frame part provided with the guidance mechanisms and detachably attached to the main frame part.

A device for sealing sample tubes comprises a tool assembly configured to interface with a rack holding a plurality of sample storage tubes, the tool assembly holding a plurality of punches and a die plate including a plurality of cutting holes, with each of the plurality of cutting holes accepting one of the plurality of punches. The tool assembly receives a foil sheet between the punches and the die plate. The device includes an actuator enabling linear movement of the tool assembly. Linear movement of the tool assembly towards the rack engages the die plate against the rack and punches the punches through the cutting holes of the die plate to punch a plurality of sealing sections from the foil sheet and to press and seal each of the sealing sections against a top end of each of the plurality of sample storage tubes in the rack.

A method of making a surgical suture having a reformed tip includes providing an elongated fiber having a first end, a second end, a central axis extending between the first and second ends thereof, and an outer surface that defines a cross-sectional dimension of the elongated fiber, and compressing a center region of the elongated fiber that is located between the first and second ends thereof for reshaping the center region into a core mass and a deformed mass that extends laterally outside the cross-sectional dimension of said elongated fiber. The method includes separating the deformed mass of the center region from the core mass of the center region so that only the core mass remains for interconnecting the first and second ends of the elongated fiber, and after separating the deformed mass from the core mass, reshaping the core mass into a reformed mass having a reformed mass central axis that is offset from the central axis of the elongated fiber.

A system and a method for manufacturing laminated composite components is described. The system may include a cutting station configured to separate component layers from a ply of composition material according to a predefined pattern, a build station configured to stack the component layers according to a predetermined orientation, and a finishing station configured to compact the stacked component layers and provide the laminated composite component to an installation station.

A thermoforming device includes: an upper hot plate including a first heating surface configured to heat a sheet from above; a lower hot plate including a second heating surface configured to heat the sheet from below; and a substrate-supplying unit including a base configured to hold a molded substrate, and configured to attach the molded substrate to and detach the molded substrate from the base and to dispose the molded substrate at a molding position below the first heating surface with the sheet interposed therebetween, in which the upper hot plate and the lower hot plate are configured to heat the sheet simultaneously from an upper surface and a lower surface of the sheet, the lower hot plate is provided to be movable in a horizontal direction with respect to a position below the upper hot plate, and the thermoforming device die-molds or adheres, onto the molded substrate held by the base, the sheet softened by being heated by the upper hot plate and the lower hot plate.

An automated fiber bundle placement apparatus including a placing head having a pressing device, and a multi-jointed robot. The pressing device includes a pressing part, a pressing mechanism having a drive device, and a drive control device. The drive control device includes a drive command unit configured to output a drive command corresponding to a contact width of a placement die with the pressing part, the contact width being a length in the width direction of a part of the placement die facing in parallel to a contact range of the pressing part during pressing against the placement die, and is configured to control drive of the drive device to apply a pressing force corresponding to the drive command to the pressing part.