A method for producing a shoe sole. To be able to produce the shoe sole in an economical fashion and with easily selectable spring and damping characteristics, the invention has the following steps: a) extruding a plastic hose and feeding the plastic hose into a blow mold; b) blow molding the plastic hose into a sole hollow body, wherein recesses are introduced on mutually opposing walls of the sole hollow body during the blow molding process, such that parts of the walls are brought into contact with one another and form a supporting structure between the mutually opposing walls; c) removing the blow-molded sole hollow body from the blow mold; d) at least partially filling the blow-molded sole hollow body with plastic bodies, wherein the plastic bodies are added through a first opening in the sole hollow body.

Composite materials having superior material properties useful as impact absorbing devices can be fabricated by embedding a lattice structure (e.g., polymer lattice structure) within a foam, so that the foam reinforces the lattice structure under impact. Materials and dimensions of the foam and the lattice structure may be selected to achieve composite materials having tailored impact absorbing elastic and/or viscoelastic responses over a wide range of temperatures.

A fiber composite material and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The fiber composite material includes: a fiber prepreg layer including a first resin and fibers impregnated with the first resin; and a plurality of strip-shaped composite resin layers including multi-layered carbon nanotubes and a second resin disposed on the fiber prepreg layer, wherein the plurality of the strip-shaped composite resin layers and the fiber prepreg layer together form a hollow tubular body, and a length direction of the plurality of strip-shaped composite resin layer is at an angle of from 0 degree and less than 90 degrees with respect to an extending direction of the fiber prepreg layer.

Method of manufacturing a three-dimensional object of a building material by an additive layer-wise building method, wherein based on material parameters of the building material and predetermined characteristics of the object to be manufactured, an internal structure of the object having a grid structure calculated, and the three-dimensional object is manufactured with this internal structure by the additive layer-wise building method, so that it comprises the predetermined characteristics.

The present invention is to provide a bound stopper, which has high mechanical strength, is excellent in durability against fatigue breaking, settling or the like when a heavy load is repeatedly received, and is easy to be produced, in which the bound stopper comprises a polyurethane foam obtained from a polyurethane foam composition containing an isocyanate component and a blowing agent, and the isocyanate component contains a urethane prepolymer having an isocyanate group, the urethane prepolymer being obtained from a polyol component, a polyrotaxane containing a cyclic molecule having an active hydrogen group as a constituent, and an isocyanate.

Methods for manufacturing articles of footwear are provided. In various aspects, the methods comprise utilizing additive manufacturing methods with foam particles. In some aspects, the additive manufacturing methods comprise increasing the temperature of a plurality of foam particles with actinic radiation under conditions effective to fuse a portion of the plurality of foam particles comprising one or more thermoplastic elastomers. Increasing the temperature of the foam particles can be carried out for one or multiple iterations. The disclosed methods can be used to manufacturer articles with sub-regions that exhibit differing degrees of fusion between the foam particles, thereby resulting in sub-regions with different properties such as density, resilience, and/or flexural modulus. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

Seat assemblies including seat brackets and spreader brackets are described. A seat bracket can include an upper portion, a lower portion, and a frangible portion. The frangible portion can be formed from composite material and include a particular layer orientation. A spreader bracket can include a first component configured to couple with a second component to form a coupled structure. A structural fill material can be disposed within the coupled structure. The first component and the second component can be formed from composite material.

A method of forming a component of a vehicle heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system from polymeric material includes providing a molding system including at least one mold cavity defining the component. A base resin is introduced to the mold system via an inlet. A chemical foaming agent is blended with the base resin to form a composition. The composition is then further heated and blended under pressure, wherein the chemical foaming agent decomposes within the composition. The composition is introduced to the mold cavity, wherein a reduced minimized pressure of the mold cavity facilitates initiation of a nucleation of the composition, wherein the composition expands to fill the mold cavity.

A structure for use in a compressible resilient pad. The structure contains both axially elastomeric strands and relatively inelastic strands co-extruded in various patterns. The structure has a high degree of both compressibility under an applied normal load and excellent recovery (resiliency or spring back) upon removal of that load.

A helmet and method for forming a helmet having a multi-density impact liner may include forming a puck comprising an interface surface and at least one side is formed. The interface surface of the puck is placed in direct contact with a receiving surface of a cap located in an impact liner mold. Next, the interface surface of the puck is thermally fused directly to the receiving surface of the cap while contemporaneously an impact liner body is formed inside the mold. The impact liner body is fused to the at least one side of the puck, and to a majority of the receiving surface of the cap. The density of the puck may be greater than the density of the impact liner body. The puck and the impact liner body may be EPS, and the cap may be PC.