A method for manufacturing a foamed plastic molded body with a film layer coating by using a tool mold with at least one tool cavity to form a shaping mold cavity, including A) heating at least one tool cavity of the tool mold; B) applying a granulate to the at least one heated tool cavity; C) fusing the granulate in the heated tool cavity to form a liquid film layer; D) applying the liquid film layer to a foamed plastic molded body to form a film layer coating on the surface of the plastic molded body by fusing the liquid film layer with the surface of the plastic molded body; and E) cooling the at least one tool cavity and ejecting the plastic molded body coated with the film layer.

An expansion apparatus includes: a first expander for irradiating with electromagnetic waves emitted from a lamp a thermal conversion layer for conversion of the electromagnetic waves to heat, to cause at least a portion of a thermal expansion layer to expand, the thermal conversion layer being laminated to a molding sheet including a base and the thermal expansion layer laminated to a first main surface of the base; and a second expander for causing expansion of a region (C) of the thermal expansion layer that is smaller in size than a region (B) of the thermal expansion layer expanded by the first expander.

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.

A packaging device and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The packaging device includes: a bottom plate (1); a side plate (2) fixed to a surface of the bottom plate (1), the bottom plate (1) and the side plate (2) forming a containing cavity through joint enclosure; and a supporting piece (3) in the bottom plate (1). The bottom plate (1) completely wraps the supporting piece (3). An extending direction of the supporting piece (3) is roughly parallel to the surface of the bottom plate (1). A material of the supporting piece (3) is different from that of the bottom plate (1), and a strength of the supporting piece (3) is greater than that of the bottom plate (1).

Expanded polypropylene beads comprising a polypropylene composition (C) having: a) a melt flow rate (MFR2) in the range from 1.5 to 15.0 g/10 min; b) a melting temperature (Tm) in the range from 135 to 158° C.; and c) a loss tangent (tan δ) in the range of 2.00 to 4.00 wherein the polypropylene composition (C) comprises more than 90.0 wt.-%, of a long chain branched copolymer of propylene (c-PP) comprising up to 8.0 wt.-% of comonomer(s) selected from ethylene and C.sub.4 to C.sub.10 alpha olefins, a method for the preparation of said beads, in addition to a method of forming molded articles from said beads, and the molded articles obtained thereby.

A molded article of polyolefin-based resin expanded beads having excellent appearance and further suppressed color unevenness is provided.

Polyolefin-based resin expanded beads obtained by expanding polyolefin-based resin particles including one or two or more metal borates selected from zinc borate and magnesium borate, wherein the particles of the metal borate has an arithmetic average particle diameter based on the number of 1 μm or more, and a number rate of the particles of the metal borate having a particle diameter of 5 μm or more is 20% or less. A method for producing polyolefin-based resin expanded beads by releasing expandable polyolefin-based resin particles containing one or two or more metal borates selected from zinc borate and magnesium borate and a physical blowing agent dispersed in an aqueous medium in a closed vessel together with the aqueous medium from the closed vessel to a low pressure region than an inside of the closed vessel to expand the expandable polyolefin-based resin particles, the method comprising: using a metal borate having an arithmetic average particle diameter based on the number of 1 μm or more and a number rate of the particles having a particle diameter of 5 μm or more of 20% or less as the metal borate.

Some embodiments are directed to a process for making a syntactic foam. Some other embodiments are directed to a process for manufacturing a buoyancy material including an outer shell and a syntactic foam. Still other embodiments are directed to the syntactic foam (or buoyancy foam) obtainable by this process. Some other embodiments are directed to a process of undersea extraction of oil including: using the syntactic. Still other embodiments are directed to an undersea extracting pipeline including a pipeline, and either the syntactic foam or the buoyancy material.

Described are a method for the manufacture of a shoe sole, the sole manufactured by the method, and a shoe including the sole. The method includes loading a pre-manufactured article comprising thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material into a mold; loading pellets of an expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (eTPU) material into said mold; and connecting the pellets with each other and to the pre-manufactured TPU article by providing an interconnecting medium, wherein the material of the pre-manufactured TPU article either comprises an additive to increase the viscosity of the material of the pre-manufactured TPU article, or has been annealed.

A method for automated manufacturing of shoe soles comprises the steps of: loading a transfer device with at least one outsole element and at least one supporting element, positioning the loaded transfer device adjacent a first part and a second part of a sole mold, transferring the at least one outsole element from the transfer device to the first part and transferring the at least one supporting element from the transfer device to the second part of the sole mold, filling the sole mold with a plurality of individual particles, and applying a medium to bond and/or fuse the particles with each other and with the at least one outsole element.

Low-density thermoplastic expandable microspheres are disclosed. Various low-density structures, in particular, sandwich panels, based on foam prepared from the low-density microspheres, are also disclosed. Process of preparing low-density polymeric microspheres, per se, and the corresponding low-density structures, based on the microsphere foam, are also disclosed.