Improved battery separators, base films or membranes and/or a method of making or using such separators, base films or membranes are provided. The preferred inventive separators, base films or membranes are made by a dry-stretch process and have improved strength, high porosity, high charge capacity and high porosity to provide excellent charge rate and/or charge capacity performance in a rechargeable battery.

Systems and methods for controlling the operation of a blow molder are disclosed. An indication of a crystallinity of at least one container produced by the blow molder may be received along with a material distribution of the at least one container. A model may be executed, where the model relates a plurality of blow molder input parameters to the indication of crystallinity and the material distribution and where a result of the model comprises changes to at least one of the plurality of blow molder input parameters to move the material distribution towards a baseline material distribution and the crystallinity towards a baseline crystallinity. The changes to the at least one of the plurality of blow molder input parameters may be implemented.

A method for the crystallization of a film made of a thermoplastic film material, in particular a CPET material, to form a product in which a crystallization process is initiated by shaping the thermoplastic film material within a molding tool. A main crystallization of the crystallization process is carried on outside of the molding tool.

The present invention relates to a polymer powder for the manufacture of articles by 3D printing, particularly by sintering, comprising a thermoplastic polymer and a particular antioxidant having improved stability and recyclability. The invention also relates to a process for preparing this powder and to the use thereof in a process for manufacturing by sintering, and to the articles manufactured from said powder.

A container, preferably a bottle, is fabricated in a method comprising: providing a preform comprising poly(ethylene 2, 5-furandicarboxylate); stretch blow-molding the preform to form the container, wherein the stretch blow-molding comprises a stretching step of the preform to a ratio higher than the natural draw ratio of poly(ethylene 2, 5-furandicarboxylate) at a temperature in a range of 105? C. to 145? C., preferably in a range of 110? C. to 140? C., and at an equivalent axial strain rate at a reference temperature of 100? C. in the range of 0.001 to 10 s.sup.?1, preferably in a range of 0.03 to 3 s.sup.?1.

A method for printing a three-dimensional part with an additive manufacturing system, which includes providing a part material that compositionally has one or more semi-crystalline polymers and one or more secondary materials that are configured to retard crystallization of the one or more semi-crystalline polymers, where the one or more secondary materials are substantially miscible with the one or more semi-crystalline polymers. The method also includes melting the part material in the additive manufacturing system, forming at least a portion of a layer of the three-dimensional part from the melted part material in a build environment, and maintaining the build environment at an annealing temperature that is between a glass transition temperature of the part material and a cold crystallization temperature of the part material.

Compositions for additive manufacturing applications are described herein which, in some embodiments, provide improved printing properties. In some embodiments, a composition comprises a primary build material in an amount of 10-99.9 wt. % and an asphaltite additive in an amount of up to 6 wt. %, based on the total weight of the composition. In some cases, the asphaltite additive comprises a solid hydrocarbon-based mineral or a solid organic material formed primarily from hydrocarbons and found in an oil-bearing sedimentary basin, such as gilsonite.

A semicrystalline poly ketone powder useful for additive manufacturing may be made by dissolving a polyketone having differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) monomodal melt peak, at a temperature above 50? C. to below the melt temperature of the polyketone, precipitating the dissolved polyketone by cooling, addition of a nonsolvent or combination thereof. The method may be used to form polyketones having a DSC melt peak with an enthalpy greater than the starting polyketone.

Nano-composite films and methods for their fabrication. The nano-composite films include a polymer matrix (e.g., polyethylene, polypropylene, or the like) and a filler capable of exfoliation such as graphene or hexagonal boron nitride (e.g., TrGO). The filler provides reinforcement, increasing tensile strength, Young's modulus, or both for the resulting nano-composite film, as compared to what it would be without the filler. The nano-composite film may have a specific tensile strength that is greater than 1 GPa/g/cm.sup.3, a specific Young's modulus that is greater than 100 GPa/g/ccm.sup.3, or both. Tensile strength and modulus values of up to 3.7 GPa/g/cm.sup.3 and 125 GPa/g/cm.sup.3, respectively, have been demonstrated. The film may be formed by combining powdered filler and polymer matrix powder in a solvent (e.g., decalin), high-shear extruding the resulting solution to disentangle the polymer chains and exfoliate the filler, freezing the solution to form a solid film, and then drawing the film.

A method includes injection molding a preform using a two phase injection system having a first phase in which a material is injected into the preform and a second phase in which the material is injected into the preform. The preform is disposed in a mold. The preform is blow molded into an intermediate article. The intermediate article is trimmed to form a finished container. The first phase includes injecting a material into the preform to form a single layer of the preform and the second phase includes injecting the material to form inner and outer layers and an intermediate layer between the inner and outer layers. The inner and outer layers include the material and the intermediate layer includes at least one additive. Finished containers are disclosed.