A flat laminate element made of thermoplastic is hot-formed in a two-stage method. In a first stage, the flat laminate which includes film(s) and/or panels(n) is placed on a flat frame-shaped pallet and is heated to a forming temperature in a heating zone between two flat heat screens in a contactless manner. The edge zone of the hot flat laminate element lies on the pallet such that the laminate piece cannot be clamped in a first laminate direction but rather can be slide on the pallet in this direction. Two non-flat rigid contours which are identical or largely identical act on two opposing parallel laminate edge sections uniaxially and perpendicularly to the laminate plane and only in the first laminate direction, i.e. monodirectionally, and shape the entire heated laminate element into a monodirectionally molded blank.

A forming tool is used, which has a tool trough arranged in a stationary manner and a pressure bell, which can be lowered onto and lifted away from the tool trough. An arrangement is created in which a single- or multi-layer, initially flat, flexible laminate separates the trough interior from the pressure-bell interior in a pressure tight manner. A table, on which the 3-D substrate to be coated is located, assumes a lowered position within the trough interior; there is a considerable, free intermediate space (between the laminate and the 3-D substrate. A radiant-heater assembly is inserted into said intermediate space. The radiant-heater assembly has a carrier, on the top side of which radiant heaters that can be activated are attached and on the bottom side of which radiant heaters that can be activated are attached.

A device and method for thermoforming of a product from a plastic film includes a mould assembly which is used in such a device. The plastic film is clamped between the mould parts in primary and secondary manner. The forming process can hereby be divided into more or less independent zones. Different forming techniques, positive or negative, can be used in the different zones. This makes it possible to combine the advantages of the two techniques in one forming process.

A process for injection molded microcellular foaming various flexible foam compositions from biodegradable and industrially compostable bio-derived thermoplastic resins for use in, for example, footwear components, seating components, protective gear components, and watersport accessories wherein a process of manufacturing includes the steps of: producing a suitable thermoplastic biopolymer or biopolymer blend; injection molding the thermoplastic biopolymer or biopolymer blend into a suitable mold shape with inert nitrogen gas; controlling the polymer melt, pressure, temperature, and time such that a desirable flexible foam is formed; and utilizing gas counterpressure in the injection molding process to ensure the optimal foam structure with the least amount of cosmetic defects and little to no plastic skin on the outside of the foamed structure.

A three-dimensional printing system for preparing a three-dimensional object made at least partially of an expanded polymer includes an autoclave, a printing device and a three-dimensional movement device. The printing device prepares an expandable polymer melt and deposits a strand of the expandable, expanding or expanded polymer onto a surface. The three-dimensional movement device adjusts the position of the printing device in a predefined three-dimensional matrix so as to enable depositing of the strand of expandable, expanding or expanded polymer at a predetermined time at a precise position within the three-dimensional matrix. The printing device includes a feed section, a cooling section, a backflow prevention section, a heating section and a terminal printing head section including a die for depositing the expandable, expanding or expanded polymer strand onto the surface.

Method for forming a transparent article comprising: heating a polymer sheet 40 to form a heated sheet; creating a pressure differential across the heated sheet; pushing the heated sheet onto the contoured surface 20 to form a shaped article; and releasing the shaped article from the mold 12. Also included herein are articles made therefrom.

A method of laminating a contoured part including heating a flexible membrane, positioning the heated flexible membrane into thermal contact with the contoured part, maintaining the heated flexible membrane in thermal contact with the contoured part to raise a surface temperature of the contoured part, moving the flexible membrane out of thermal contact with the contoured part, positioning a laminate between the flexible membrane and the contoured part, conforming the laminate to a surface of the contoured part, and heating the conformed laminate and contoured part to adhere the conformed laminate to the surface of the contoured part. The laminate may be conformed to a surface of the contoured part by applying a vacuum between the flexible membrane and the contoured part.

The present invention is directed to a method of incrementally stretching polymeric film formed from a blown film extrusion process. The present invention is further directed to a polymeric bag formed from an incrementally stretched polymeric film. The incremental stretching is performed on a collapsed polymeric bubble via a pair of intermeshing rollers. The incrementally stretched polymeric film may be stretched only along a portion of its width. The polymeric bag may be a drawstring trash bag with an extended hem where only the extended hem of the bag or the body of the bag comprises incrementally stretched polymeric film.

A honeycomb sandwich sheet or panel, based on thermoplastic polypropylene, includes a structure having two flat outer films, at the top and bottom, welded to at least two inner or central thermoformed blister films, repeated in a regular and continuous pattern, wherein the at least two inner thermoformed films are welded to each other.

The invention relates to a device and a method for semi-continuous blow moulding of fiber-reinforced, thermoplastic, endless, hollow-profile-shaped components with longitudinally constant or varying cross-sections, consisting of at least one consolidation tool, which, in its closed state, encloses a preform enclosing an elastically moldable pressure chamber.