A heat-insulating housing (21) includes: a wall body; and an open-cell resin body (4) of thermosetting resin with which a heat-insulating space formed by the wall body is filled by integral foaming, the open-cell resin body including: a plurality of cells (47); a cell film portion (42); a cell skeleton portion (43); a first through-hole (44) formed so as to extend through the cell film portion; and a second through-hole (45) formed so as to extend through the cell skeleton portion, wherein the plurality of cells communicate with one another through the first through-hole and the second through-hole.

Methods of forming a lightweight reinforced thermoplastic core layer and articles including the core layer are described. In some examples, the methods use a combination of thermoplastic material, reinforcing fibers and bicomponent fibers to enhance retention of lofting agents in the core layer. The processes permit the use of less material while still providing sufficient lofting capacity in the final formed core layer.

There is disclosed a surgical sponge device comprising a sponge portion and a handle portion The sponge portion is formed from an open cell foam material having an external surface. The handle portion comprises a grip at one end thereof that compressively grips mutually opposed external surface regions of the sponge portion an edge of the sponge portion. Substantially all of the external surface of the sponge portion is formed as an uncut external surface, except for at least one predetermined region of the external surface that is located close to the grip, the at least one predetermined region of the external surface being formed as a cut external surface. Because most of the external surface of the sponge portion is uncut, it will be free of unwanted particulate material.

A polymer board with a cut edge is automatically advanced through a stationary, non-spinning sealing element that contacts and compresses the cut edge and provides a sealed and smooth surface to the cut edge.

The present invention relates to the technical field of 3D printing, especially in the form of the binder jetting method, in which particulate material in a powder bed is bonded by means of a printed adhesive to form a three-dimensional object. The particulate materials may be inorganic materials, for example sand or a metal powder, or particulate polymeric materials, for example polymethacrylates or polyamides. For this purpose, polymethacrylates may take the form, for example, of suspension polymers, called bead polymers. The present invention relates to the use of porous particles in the binder jetting process, in particular of porous suspension polymers. These powders for 3-D printing differ from the prior art in that the porosity results in a faster and better absorption of the printed binder by the powder particles. A great advantage of this procedure is additionally that a product with less warpage is formed and that the end product has a better surface appearance.

The compressible sealing element (1) comprises at least one piece made of a resilient foam (17). This foam has an open-cell content of at least 50% and has such a hardness that it requires a force of less than 2000 N to compress the sealing element (1) per meter length thereof to such an extent that the volume of a rectangular cuboid circumscribing the sealing element is reduced by 40%. The sealing element comprises a water-impermeable cover layer (18) which extends at least over its top surface. The sealing element is intended for filling at least partially the gaps between the stock rails (13) and the switch rails (12) in a railway switch to prevent the switch from being blocked in particular by snow. Advantages of the new sealing element is that it can easier be inserted in these gaps and that it has a smaller effect on the force required to close the switch so that it can also be applied closer to the free extremity of the switch rail (12).

Non-extractable and fiber-free food oil removing film is a flexible with numerous open-cell of microporous structure used for removing oils from cooked food. The said plastic film is made from a mixture of polypropylene polymer, specific carbon atom olefin fillers and nucleating agent. The mixture is plasticized and formed into a tubular film substrate by a tubular blown film extruder, then following biaxial stretching by a specific isostatic pressurized hot water technique forming numerous of smooth, uniform, lipophilic, microporous structure that absorb and retain any kinds of oils from cooked foods. The film is applied in various forms varying to its applications such as sheet, perforated rolls, or laminated on other functional substrates to from a novel food packaging by lamination methods.

In outer shape processing of a resin expanded sheet having a resin expanded layer including a polyamide-based resin composition, the outer shape processing is carried out while allowing a specified amount or more of moisture to be contained in the resin expanded layer.

The present invention relates to a process for producing an open-cell rigid polyurethane foam. Said foams can contain, besides urethane groups (PUR), also isocyanurate groups (PIR).

A novel material for producing auxetic foams is disclosed. The material comprises a multiphase, multicomponent polymer foam with a filler polymer having a carefully selected glass transition temperature. Novel methods for producing auxetic foams from the material are also disclosed that consistently, reliably and quickly produce auxetic polyurethane foam at about room temperature (25 C.). This technology overcomes challenging issues in the large-scale production of auxetic PU foams, such as unfavorable heat-transmission problem and harmful organic solvents.