A molding thermal expansion structure includes a thermoplastic material and a thermal expansion material, wherein the thermoplastic material is 50 wt % to 90 wt % based on a weight of the molding thermal expansion structure; the thermal expansion material is 50 wt % to 10 wt % based on a weight of the molding thermal expansion structure; wherein, the thermal expansion material is expanded from a foaming original material through a pre-foaming process; the thermoplastic material and the thermal expansion material are mixed to form a mixed material; the mixed material is thermally expanded to form a thermal expansion structure in a molding apparatus. The molding thermal expansion structure provided in the present invention could satisfy various needs of light-weighted products. A molding method of the thermal expansion structure is also provided herein.

Skinned cell structures and methods of producing the same are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus includes a placer to place foamable structures together to define a bundle, a restrainer to restrain the bundle, an activator to activate the foamable structures to expand and form a cell structure within the restrainer, a trimmer to trim the cell structure to define a core, and an assembler to couple a skin to the core to define the skinned cell structure.

Fabrication system and associated methods of fabricating a sandwich panel. In one embodiment, a method includes holding a first skin and a second skin of the sandwich panel with a gap between opposing faces of the first skin and the second skin, and expanding a foamable material between the first skin and the second skin to form a foam core of the sandwich panel.

Methods of recovering and/or recycling expanded polymer tooling, the methods including collecting expanded polymer tooling, reducing the collected expanded polymer tooling into smaller particles, treating the reduced expanded polymer tooling in order to yield an at least partially purified recovered polymer composition, and then collecting the at least partially purified recovered polymer composition. The at least partially purified recovered polymer composition can then be used to form new expandable polymer tooling.

A process is disclosed to recycle and/or formulate expandable plastic materials using a system (1) comprising: an extruder unit (10), a mixer-heat exchanger unit (20), said process comprising the steps of: melting in the extruder unit (10), cooling in the mixer-heat exchanger unit (20), and controlling the melt pressure by means of a melt pump unit (50), followed by granulation, extrusion, or injection molding, wherein a first expansion agent (81) is not degassed during a melt processing in the system (1) such that it is substantially contained in the granulated expandable plastic material (130) or used to form either the extruded, formed and expanded plastic material (140) or the molded expanded plastic article (150). The present invention also relates to a granulated expandable plastic material (130), an extruded, formed and expanded plastic material (140), and a molded expanded plastic article (150) obtainable by said process.

A method of forming a polymeric vacuum insulation board is provided, the polymeric vacuum insulation board including a plurality of evacuated, closed-cell pores therein. In one embodiment, the method includes intermixing a polymer with zeolite particles that contain water and extruding the resulting composition under high pressure. During extrusion, water in the zeolite particles evaporates and creates a porous, closed-cell microstructure within a polymer matrix. As the polymer matrix cools and solidifies, water vapor is reabsorbed by the zeolite, which at least partially evacuates the closed-cell pores. In another embodiment, the method includes intermixing a polymer with expandable graphite particles and extruding the resulting composition under high pressure. During extrusion, the expandable graphite particles define evacuated voids. The polymer binder can be selected to include low gas permeance, for example ethylene vinyl alcohol (EvOH) or polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC). In some applications, the polymer can be blended with nano-clays or other additives to further decrease the gas permeance of the vacuum insulation board.

The present disclosure is drawn to radiation embossable coated print media. In one example, a radiation embossable coated print medium can include a print substrate, an expanding coating layer on the print substrate, and an ink receiving layer on the expanding coating layer. The expanding coating layer can include a flexible polymer binder and temperature responsive thermoplastic beads in the flexible polymeric binder. The temperature responsive thermoplastic beads can include a propellant encapsulated in a thermoplastic polymer shell.

A thermally expandable sheet includes: a thermally expansive layer formed on a one surface of a base; a first ink receiving layer that is provided on the thermally expansive layer for receiving ink; a film provided on the first ink receiving layer; and a second ink receiving layer that is provided on the film for receiving ink; wherein the first ink receiving layer is formed of a material that provides a texture a different from a texture of the second ink receiving layer.

A method of manufacturing a footwear sole component is provided including projecting elongated pins into a mold cavity in the shape of the footwear sole component and partially filled with an expandable material including multiple unexpanded beads, and introducing steam into the cavity through ports defined by one or more cavity walls and through the pins in an internal region of the expandable material, to expand both exterior beads and interior beads in the internal region a predetermined amount. With the elongated pins, the interior beads can be expanded more, less and/or the same amount as exterior beads to provide particular physical characteristics to the component. For example, the interior beads can be fully expanded to a similar density as exterior beads, or expanded less to provide more density and rigidity in the internal region, or expanded more to provide less density and rigidity in the internal region.

An aspect of the present invention relates to a mold insert for use in a mold for the manufacture of a cushioning element for sports apparel. Further aspects of the present invention relate to a mold using such a mold insert, a method for the manufacture of a cushioning element for sports apparel using such a mold, and a cushioning element manufactured by such a method.