Provided is a curable granular silicone composition which has hot-melt properties, is excellent in terms of handleability and curability in overmolding and the like, and gives cured objects and the like highly inhibited from taking a color at high temperatures. The curable granular silicone composition comprises: (A) organopolysiloxane resin fine particles which do not have hot-melt properties and have a curing-reactive functional group containing a carbon-carbon double bond and in which siloxane units represented by RSiO.sub.3/2 (where R is a monovalent organic group) or SiO.sub.4/2 account for at least 20 mol % of all the siloxane units; (B) a liquid, linear or branched organopolysiloxane having, in the molecule, at least two curing-reactive functional groups containing a carbon-carbon double bond; (C) a hardener; and (D) a functional filler. The composition as a whole has hot-melt properties. Uses of the curable granular silicone composition are also disclosed.

A method of making an organ or tissue comprises: (a) providing a first dispenser containing a structural support polymer and a second dispenser containing a live cell-containing composition; (b) depositing a layer on said support from said first and second dispenser, said layer comprising a structural support polymer and said cell-containing composition; and then (c) iteratively repeating said depositing step a plurality of times to form a plurality of layers one on another, with separate and discrete regions in each of said layers comprising one or the other of said support polymer or said cell-containing composition, to thereby produce provide a composite three dimensional structure containing both structural support regions and cell-containing regions. Apparatus for carrying out the method and composite products produced by the method are also described.

Provided are a quality inspection method and a quality inspection system for unvulcanized rubber material. A final dielectric constant measurement device detects the dielectric constant of a final rubber material in which a compounding agent of predetermined type is mixed with unvulcanized rubber, and a calculator calculates a compounding ratio of the compounding agent to the final rubber material based on the detected dielectric constant, determines whether or not the calculated compounding ratio is in a preset compounding reference range, displays a determination result on a monitor, and adjusts a ratio of the compounding agent fed into an extruder to the unvulcanized rubber such that the calculated compounding ratio is within the compounding reference range.

Disclosed in this specification is a process for manufacturing a thermochromic contact lens. The process includes (1) selecting a photoinitiator that absorbs at a first wavelength and at least one thermochromic dye that displays substantial absorption at the first wavelength when the dye is at a first temperature and exhibits at least an 80% reduction in absorbance at the first wavelength at a second temperature, (2) maintaining the reaction mixture at the second temperature and (3) providing cure light that includes the first wavelength.

The present invention concerns an elastic fibrous material, based on a fiber network, also including an elastomeric component, which material has been formed into a flat structure with two surfaces. Further, the invention concerns a method of manufacturing said elastic fibrous material by forming a fiber network, containing an elastic polymer, foaming the fiber network, adding it into one or more layers on a support, followed by curing.

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional solid polymeric article having surface effects comprising a polymer composition and 0.1 to 20% by weight of a hydrophobic compound, based on the total weight of the solid polymeric article, where the hydrophobic compound is intermixed throughout the polymer composition and throughout three-dimensional solid polymeric article; and where the hydrophobic compound is selected from a cyclic alcohol which is substituted with at least two hydrophobic groups.

A method of blow molding an article having at least one layer of thermoplastic material. The method comprises the steps of heating a mold having an inner surface with two or more areas of different surface textures to a first temperature of greater than 55° C. and subsequently feeding a parison into the mold. The parison is then blown against the inner surface of the mold to form an article. The temperature of the mold is subsequently lowered to a second temperature of between 20° C. to about 55° C. and the temperature cycle time (t.sub.ct) of the mold is less than 250 seconds. Using the two phase heating and cooling process in combination with a mold featuring different surface textures provides a finished article with different visual effects.

Use of a filled polymer resin in the manufacture of an article therefrom by injection moulding, a method of manufacturing an article by injection moulding a filled polymer resin, a method for enabling or improving the injection mouldability of a polymer resin comprising recycled polymer, wherein the polymer resin comprises recycled polymer and functional filler, the use of a functional filler in a polymer resin comprising recycled polymer to improve the injection mouldability of the polymer resin, an article of manufacture obtained by injection moulding a filled polymer resin, and a filled polymer resin.

A composite composition includes a thermoset resin and about 3 wt. % to about 35 wt. % of at least one material selected from the group consisting of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), micro-sized cellulose fibers (MFC), and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) dispersed therein as measured with respect to the overall weight of the composite composition. The cellulose nanofibrils and/or nanocrystals have an average diameter of about 5 nm to about 500 nm and an average aspect ratio in the range of about 5:1 to about 500:1. The cellulose micro-sized fibers have an average diameter of about 5 μm to about 100 μm and an average aspect ratio in the range of about 5:1 to about 250:1.

A near infrared (NIR) laser processable resin based article comprising a specific optothermal converting. The specific optothermal converting has an improved thermal stability and therefore renders the preparation of the resin based article more reliable.