A heat insulating material includes an aerogel that has macro-pores and meso-pores. A method for manufacturing a heat insulating material, including: a sol preparation step of adding a gelling agent into sodium silicate such that a molar ratio of the gelling agent relative to NaO.sub.2 is 0.1 to 0.75, and adjusting a sol into which macro-pores are introduced by leaving unreacted Na and non-cross-linked oxygen in a siloxane skeleton; an impregnating and gelling step of impregnating a nonwoven fabric fiber structure with the sol to form a composite of hydrogel-nonwoven fabric fiber; a hydrophobizating step of mixing the formed composite of hydrogel-nonwoven fabric fiber with a silylating agent to modify a surface thereof; and a drying step of removing a liquid contained in the surface modified composite of hydrogel-nonwoven fabric fiber by drying under a temperature and pressure lower than respective critical values.

The present invention relates to a composite comprising (1) a bottom layer comprising expanded thermoplastic elastomer particles; and (2) a surface layer on the bottom layer, and the use of such composites in flooring surfaces sports, sports hall floorings, swimming pool hall floorings, running tracks, sports facilities, playgrounds, kindergartens, park walkway and pavements.

The present invention relates to a composite comprising (1) a bottom layer comprising expanded thermoplastic elastomer particles; and (2) a surface layer on the bottom layer, and the use of such composites in flooring surfaces sports, sports hall floorings, swimming pool hall floorings, running tracks, sports facilities, playgrounds, kindergartens, park walkway and pavements.

The present invention provides a composite structure, a method for its manufacture, a sewn product containing the composite structure, and a method for manufacturing the sewn product. The composite structure comprises a foam layer, a textile layer, a cover layer and a lacquer layer in this order, wherein the foam layer has a density of at most 300 kg/m.sup.3 and contains a polyolefin, the cover layer is thermoplastic and comprises at least two compact sublayers of different composition, each sublayer containing at least one thermoplastic selected from polyolefin and polyvinyl chloride.

In an aspect of the invention there is provided a blast protection panel, comprising a package of fibre-reinforced resin sheets, each sheet having a dominant unidirectional fibre orientation, said package of fibre-reinforced resin sheets formed in packed stacks, each stack comprising at least four fibre-reinforced resin sheets with dominant unidirectional fibres oriented, within said each stack, alternatingly at about right angles relative to each other; and said each stack packed against adjacent stacks, said adjacent stacks comprising sheets with dominant unidirectional fibres oriented at acute angles relative said each stack thereby forming a delamination interface.

A fabric formed by an interweaving of monofilaments (2) of synthetic material and which has two opposite metalized faces, in which at least one of said faces has at least one color (5) which determines the level of transparency.

Compared to the known fabrics for making transparent panels for the building sector, the fabric according to the invention offers the advantage of allowing control of the level of transparency to light, depending on the color applied to the metalized surface of the fabric.

A preformed material for use in fiber-reinforced composite materials, the preformed material including one or more fiber rovings including parallel fibers wherein the fiber rovings include one or more folds in a direction parallel to the direction of the fibers and wherein the unfolded width of the fiber rovings have a width included in a range from 0.3 mm to 5 mm. The fiber density by volume may be included in a range from 10% to 75% of fibers. The thickness of a fiber roving may be included in a range from 50 .Math.m to 2 mm. The fiber rovings may include from 500 to 12000 fibers. The fiber rovings may include a thermoplastic polymer that forms a first bond within the one or more folds and a second bond between a first fiber roving and a second adjacent fiber roving.

A multilayer structure for storing hydrogen, including, from the inside, at least one sealing layer and at least one composite reinforcement layer, an innermost composite reinforcement layer being welded to an outermost adjacent sealing layer, the sealing layers being a composition predominantly of: at least one semi-crystalline polyamide thermoplastic polymer P1i, i=1 to n, n being the number of sealing layers, excluding an amide polyether block (PEBA), up to 50% by weight of impact modifier relative to the total weight of the composition, up to 1.5% by weight of plasticizer relative to the total weight of the composition, and at least one of the composite reinforcement layers of a fibrous material in the form of continuous fibers, which is impregnated with a composition predominantly of at least one semi-crystalline polyamide polymer P2j, j=1 to m, m being the number of reinforcement layers.

A multilayer structure for storing hydrogen, including, from the inside, at least one sealing layer and at least one composite reinforcement layer, an innermost composite reinforcement layer being welded to an outermost adjacent sealing layer, the sealing layers being a composition predominantly of: at least one semi-crystalline polyamide thermoplastic polymer P1i, i=1 to n, n being the number of sealing layers, excluding an amide polyether block (PEBA), up to 50% by weight of impact modifier relative to the total weight of the composition, up to 1.5% by weight of plasticizer relative to the total weight of the composition, and at least one of the composite reinforcement layers of a fibrous material in the form of continuous fibers, which is impregnated with a composition predominantly of at least one semi-crystalline polyamide polymer P2j, j=1 to m, m being the number of reinforcement layers.

The invention relates to a laminate (10; 10a) having a core (12) containing a thermoplastic polymer and having metal cover layers (16) disposed on either side of the core (12), each cover layer (16) being connected to the core (12) via an adhesive layer (14) having at least one polymer layer (15).