An automotive assembly line tool system and method utilizing a heat-shrinkable bumper disposed around a portion of an assembly line tool for absorbing kinetic energy between the portion of the tool and a work-piece on an assembly line. The bumper may be a chemically cross-linked polyolefin heat-shrinkable material having a shore D hardness of 42 or less after being heat-shrunk. The bumper may be a tubular bumper that has a continuous outer surface around its circumference and a heavy wall that is highly split-resistant. The bumper may have a life term of at least one year in an automotive assembly line environment. By protecting the tools and equipment, chips and scratches on a work-piece on the assembly line may be reduced.

A leg support includes a support element. A reinforcing element is disposed on the support element. The support element is chemically compatible with the reinforcing element. A homogeneous chemical bond is formed between the support element and the reinforcing element.

A contoured composite laminate stiffener is fabricated by assembling a substantially flat composite laminate charge and forming the charge into a substantially straight stiffener having a desired cross sectional shape. A contour is formed in the stiffener which has an inside radius and an outside radius. Ply wrinkling is substantially eliminated by reducing compression strain on the inside radius as the stiffener as being contoured.

A hinge mechanism includes a resin base member, and a support rotatably and pivotally mounted to the base member. The base member is formed by blow molding so as to be hollowed. The base member integrally includes a hinge member for rotatably and pivotally mounting the support to the base member. The hinge member is set in a molding die for clamping at the time of the blow molding of the base member, so as to be molded integrally with the base member.

A stand supports an electronic apparatus in an erect state. The stand includes: a supporting portion that has a supporting surface which supports a rear surface of the electronic apparatus; a leg portion that is rotatably connected to the supporting portion via a hinge; a flexible member that has flexibility, that is formed in a sheet shape, and that is provided along one edge of the supporting portion so as to protrude from the one edge; a surface material that has flexibility and forms front surfaces of the supporting portion and the flexible member; a first bonding layer that fixes the surface material onto the supporting portion; and a second bonding layer that is formed to have a lower coating density of a bonding adhesive than the first bonding layer and fixes the surface material onto the flexible member.

A surface structure is made up of composite material structure plates, a prismatic structure is made up of metal frames, a reinforcing rib structure is also arranged in the box frame structure, and the reinforcing rib structure is made up of the composite material structural plates; the metal frame is used to connect two adjacent composite material structural panels, and a side of the metal frame protrudes with mounting grooves, and the mounting grooves clamp the two sides of the composite material structural plate respectively.