A method for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the method comprising: (1) reducing a chamber pressure within a chamber to below about 5 millibars; (2) after reducing the chamber pressure to below about 5 millibars, providing a polymer melt to the chamber; (3) separating the polymer melt into at least eight streams; (4) while the at least eight streams of the polymer melt are within the chamber, exposing the at least eight streams of the polymer melt to the chamber pressure of below about 5 millibars; (5) after exposing the at least eight streams of the polymer melt to the chamber pressure of below about 5 millibars, recombining the at least eight streams into a single polymer stream; and (6) forming polymer from the single polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament.

A dynamic manufacturing system such as for the additive manufacture of a fabrication item with multiformative capabilities presents a processor (29) that can refine movement, instructions, or data to achieve greater manufacturing efficiency and substantially uninterruptive change between formative process elements (24) or capabilities with simple user input (28) or indications. Optimization of movements, deposition of material, positioning, variant repositioning for next item layers during fabrication are provided in manners where the functions can be self contained such as in a 3D printer or the like and can be accomplished without significant interruptions to traditional processing times or even in shorter times through the improved transformations.

An extruder is fitted with a connector for coupling and decoupling with a filament feed source, such as a filament tube. When connected, the extruder and filament tube are aligned to define a feed path for a filament. A tool rack includes a plurality of filament tubes secured within respective openings. The tool rack may facilitate coupling and decoupling operations between the extruder and filament sources. For example, the tool rack may define an insertion path that engages a filament tube during insertion, and that secures the filament tube against an excursion from the insertion path. The extruder may disengage the coupling by initiating a motion along the insertion path and then moving off of the insertion path to decouple the filament tube and the extruder. In this manner, filaments may be swapped through engaging and disengaging the extruder with different filament tubes on the tool rack.

A supply of build material such as a spool or cartridge is instrumented with a data tag that includes information about the build material. A three-dimensional printer can read the information from the tag and determine how to use the build material during fabrication of a three-dimensional object.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from recycled polymer. In various embodiments, the method includes: (1) reducing recycled polymer material into polymer flakes; (2) cleansing the polymer flakes; (3) melting the flakes into a polymer melt; (4) removing water and contaminants from the polymer melt by dividing the polymer melt into a plurality of polymer streams and exposing those streams to pressures below 25 millibars or another predetermined pressure; (5) recombining the streams; and (6) using the resulting purified polymer to produce bulked continuous carpet filament.

A sealing assembly has an expansion band having an arcuate band portion and a pair of threaded end portions formed at opposing ends of the arcuate band, in which the arcuate band and threaded end portions are monolithically formed as a single piece. Fixed within respective threaded end portions are a pair of oppositely threaded nuts adapted to receive a bolt having correspondingly oppositely threaded ends. Rotation of the bolt causes the threaded end portions to be simultaneously driven apart or drawn toward one another (depending on the rotation direction of the bolt) to thereby expand or contract the overall outer profile of the arcuate band portion. The monolithically formed expansion band may be made of an inexpensive, non-rusting material such as nylon 66, and glass fibers and/or additives may be employed to impart strength and flexibility.

An injection mold and a device for preparation of a light guide plate are provided by embodiments of the present disclosure. An injection mold, comprising a male mold and a female mold which cooperate with each other to define collectively a molding cavity adapted for molding a sheet component therein; a blowing device is provided in the male mold and configured to blow out gas with a predetermined pressure towards a bottom surface of the sheet component molded in the molding cavity to overcome at least partially a vacuum adsorption force between the bottom surface of the sheet component and an internal bottom surface of the molding cavity such that the sheet component is separated from the male mold. Therefore, the sheet component can be demoulded successfully and prevented from a relatively large warping deformation during a demoulding process such that the quality thereof can be guaranteed.

An extruder or other tool head of a three-dimensional printer is instrumented to detect contact force against the extruder, such as by a build platform or an object being fabricated. The tool head may also be instrumented to detect deflection forces and the like acting on the tool that might indicate an operating error. The resulting feedback data can be used in a variety of ways to control operation of the three-dimensional printer during fabrication or diagnostics.

A method of forming an integral manifold adjacent a cell stack of a flowing electrolyte battery enables improved bonding of a molten material to the battery cell stack. The method includes defining a mould cavity adjacent the cell stack, with the mould cavity open to capillary openings of half cells of the cell stack; locating a plurality of pins in the mould cavity, with end regions of the pins being contiguous with the capillary openings; preheating the mould cavity by passing a fluid into a first end of the mould cavity and out of a second end of the mould cavity; and filling the mould cavity with molten material.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from recycled polymer. In various embodiments, the method includes: (1) reducing recycled polymer material into polymer flakes; (2) cleansing the polymer flakes; (3) melting the flakes into a polymer melt; (4) removing water and contaminants from the polymer melt by dividing the polymer melt into a plurality of polymer streams and exposing those streams to pressures below 5 millibars; (5) recombining the streams; and (6) using the resulting purified polymer to produce bulked continuous carpet filament.