Presented are manufacturing systems, methods, and devices for forming footwear using scrap or waste plastic materials. A method for manufacturing an article of footwear, such as an athletic shoe, begins with receiving a batch of recycled plastic, which may include thermoplastic elastomers or ethylene-vinyl acetate, and grinding the batch of recycled plastic material. The ground recycled material is processed, for example, by adding a foaming agent that activates at elevated temperatures. The processed recycled material is placed into the internal cavity of a final mold that is shaped like a segment of the footwear, such as a unitary sole structure. To form the footwear segment, the processed recycled material is heated past the threshold activation temperature of the foaming agent such that the foaming agent causes the recycled material to expand and fill the internal cavity of the final mold. The formed footwear segment is then extracted from the mold.

Presented are manufacturing systems, methods, and devices for forming footwear using scrap or waste plastic materials. A method for manufacturing an article of footwear, such as an athletic shoe, begins with receiving a batch of recycled plastic, which may include thermoplastic elastomers or ethylene-vinyl acetate, and grinding the batch of recycled plastic material. The ground recycled material is processed, for example, by adding a foaming agent that activates at elevated temperatures. The processed recycled material is placed into the internal cavity of a final mold that is shaped like a segment of the footwear, such as a unitary sole structure. To form the footwear segment, the processed recycled material is heated past the threshold activation temperature of the foaming agent such that the foaming agent causes the recycled material to expand and fill the internal cavity of the final mold. The formed footwear segment is then extracted from the mold.

A process for manufacturing a structural component made of composite material comprising a skin and at least one stiffening stringer applied rigidly and integrally to one face of the skin. The process comprises a) arranging, on a tool, a plurality of first layers of uncured or pre-cured composite material, forming the stringer and having a raised portion protruding from at least one flange; b) arranging, on the tool, a plurality of second layers of uncured or pre-cured composite material forming the skin; c) making a face of the skin and the flange of the stringer adhere to each other; d) applying a predetermined temperature and pressure on the assembly to compact the layers together, possibly curing the uncured material and rigidly joining the skin to the stringer; and e) performing a cutting operation on the free end side edge/s of the flange in a slanted direction.

A process for manufacturing a structural component made of composite material comprising a skin and at least one stiffening stringer applied rigidly and integrally to one face of the skin. The process comprises a) arranging, on a tool, a plurality of first layers of uncured or pre-cured composite material, forming the stringer and having a raised portion protruding from at least one flange; b) arranging, on said tool, a plurality of second layers of uncured or pre-cured composite material forming said skin; c) making a face of said skin and flange adhere to each other; d) applying predetermined temperature and pressure on the assembly, possibly curing the uncured material and rigidly joining said skin to said stringer; e) performing a cutting operation on the free end side edge/s of said flange; and f) cover said end side edge/s of the end of said flange with a coating of composite material.

A method of manufacturing a molded solid surface includes mixing ferrous particles into a resinous material, injecting the resinous material including the ferrous particles into a mold, the mold including an upper mold half and a lower mold half, creating a predetermined pattern in the resinous material by applying a force to the ferrous particles in the resinous material toward a surface of the upper mold half or the lower mold half using one or more magnets, and curing the resinous material in the mold into the molded solid surface.

A filler disposition film that can use a commercially procurable filler material having good particle diameter uniformity, enables high positional precision of the filler disposition, can support even an increase in the surface area, and has a prescribed filler regularly disposed in a long resin film. Moreover, the rate of consistency of disposition of the filler in the filler disposition film in rectangular areas of a prescribed size having a length of 1000 times or more the average particle diameter of the prescribed filler, and a width of 0.2 mm or greater is 90% or greater. Such a rectangular area has a long-side direction that is substantially parallel to the long-side direction of the filler disposition film, and a widthwise direction that is substantially parallel to a short-side direction of the filler disposition film. The average particle diameter of the regularly disposed filler is from 0.4 μm to 100 μm.

A filler disposition film that can use a commercially procurable filler material having good particle diameter uniformity, enables high positional precision of the filler disposition, can support even an increase in the surface area, and has a prescribed filler regularly disposed in a long resin film. Moreover, the rate of consistency of disposition of the filler in the filler disposition film in rectangular areas of a prescribed size having a length of 1000 times or more the average particle diameter of the prescribed filler, and a width of 0.2 mm or greater is 90% or greater. Such a rectangular area has a long-side direction that is substantially parallel to the long-side direction of the filler disposition film, and a widthwise direction that is substantially parallel to a short-side direction of the filler disposition film. The average particle diameter of the regularly disposed filler is from 0.4 μm to 100 μm.

A filler disposition film that can use a commercially procurable filler material having good particle diameter uniformity, enables high positional precision of the filler disposition, can support even an increase in the surface area, and has a prescribed filler regularly disposed in a long resin film. Moreover, the rate of consistency of disposition of the filler in the filler disposition film in rectangular areas of a prescribed size having a length of 1000 times or more the average particle diameter of the prescribed filler, and a width of 0.2 mm or greater is 90% or greater. Such a rectangular area has a long-side direction that is substantially parallel to the long-side direction of the filler disposition film, and a widthwise direction that is substantially parallel to a short-side direction of the filler disposition film. The average particle diameter of the regularly disposed filler is from 0.4 μm to 100 μm.

A filler disposition film that can use a commercially procurable filler material having good particle diameter uniformity, enables high positional precision of the filler disposition, can support even an increase in the surface area, and has a prescribed filler regularly disposed in a long resin film. Moreover, the rate of consistency of disposition of the filler in the filler disposition film in rectangular areas of a prescribed size having a length of 1000 times or more the average particle diameter of the prescribed filler, and a width of 0.2 mm or greater is 90% or greater. Such a rectangular area has a long-side direction that is substantially parallel to the long-side direction of the filler disposition film, and a widthwise direction that is substantially parallel to a short-side direction of the filler disposition film. The average particle diameter of the regularly disposed filler is from 0.4 μm to 100 μm.

A solid-state additive manufacturing additive manufacturing system applicable to building up 3D structures, coating and functionalizing surfaces, joining structures, adding customized features to objects, compounding proprietary compositions and repairing various structures is disclosed. The solid-state additive manufacturing system enables deposition of different fillers, viz. metals, metal alloys, MMCs, polymers, plastics, composites, hybrids and gradient compositions, as well as controls the resulting deposit structures, e.g. specific nano-/micro-, gradient- and porous-material structures. The system accommodates various feeding-, spindle- and tool-designs for depositing different forms of filler materials, viz. rods, wires, granules, powders, powder-filled-tubes, scrap pieces or their combination, and a working platform with multiple access points. One or multiple motors, driving and monitoring units control the movement of the workpiece, spindle and tool and move the filler through the feeding system, which passageway is in communication with the passageways of the spindle and the tool.