An apparatus for hot drape forming a part includes a plurality of pyrometers, a bladder covering a formable material, and a pyrometer control medium positioned between the plurality of pyrometers and the formable material. The plurality of pyrometers are configured to measure a temperature of the pyrometer control medium.

A flexible mold has a mold body having a nanoimprinting microstructure and is gradually thickened from its periphery to the middle. Also, a resist spreading nanoimprinting method that integrates a soft mold into a dovetailed meal ring and then deforms it to form a point contact with a substrate before an imprinting process is followed and then convert a loading force into a specific distributed contact pressure for driving the resist flow by using an elastomer cushion pad with a pre-designed convex surface.

The improved mold assembly for cultured marble molding is provided. The mold assembly can comprise a male mold portion and a female mold portion. The assembly can further comprise a molding tool. The molding tool can have a side wall having an upper curved s and a lower curved portion. The molding tool can be constructed from a flexible and/or soft material. The lower curved portion of the molding tool can be coated with a gel coat having a first color. The molding tool can facilitate molding of a countertop having a recessed bowl portion having a color different from a counter portion of the countertop.

The present invention concerns an apparatus for making a three-dimensionally curved object, said apparatus comprising a membrane having a moulding surface, which is configurable into a predetermined shape by individually adjusting an array of actuators acting on the surface opposite the moulding surface of said membrane, wherein the membrane is a ferromagnetic membrane and the actuators are provided with magnetic joints at the distal ends of said actuators.

Three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical morphologies widely exist in natural and biomimetic materials, which impart preferential functions including liquid and mass transport, energy conversion, and signal transmission for various applications. While notable progress has been made in the design and manufacturing of various hierarchical materials, the state-of-the-art approaches suffer from limited materials selection, high costs, as well as low processing throughput. Herein, by harnessing the configurable elastic crack engineering-controlled formation and configuration of cracks in elastic materials, an effect normally avoided in various industrial processes, the present invention provides a facile and powerful technique to enable the faithful transfer of arbitrary hierarchical structures with broad material compatibility and structural and functional integrity. The present invention provides a cost-effective, large-scale production method of a variety of flexible, inexpensive, and transparent 3D hierarchical and biomimetic materials.

Provided is a curable composition which has chargeability into silicone molds and curability at excellent levels, less causes the silicone molds to swell, and allows the silicone molds to have better durability and a longer service life in repeated use. The curable composition according to the present invention contains curable compounds and a cationic initiator and is used for production of an optical component by molding using silicone molds. The curable compounds include (A) a cycloaliphatic epoxy compound in a content of 10 weight percent or more of the totality of all the curable compounds contained in the curable composition. Of the totality of all the curable compounds contained in the curable composition, 10 to 50 weight percent is a curable compound or compounds having a molecular weight of 400 or more.

The present invention relates to an artificial marble including one or more stripe regions and a base region on a first surface of the artificial marble, in which the stripe regions extend into the artificial marble, in which the artificial marble includes a section where a surface of the section corresponding to the first surface of the artificial marble is the base region and an inside of the artificial marble in a vertical direction under the base region is the stripe region, and in which at least a part of the stripe region of the section is visible to a naked eye from the surface of the base region.

A method of manufacturing a can lid composed of a composite material comprising at least one sheet metal part, in particular an aluminum part or a tin plate part, and at least one plastic part, in particular composed of polypropylene or polyethylene terephthalate, wherein the plastic material and the sheet metal part are joined together by pressing together and by inductive heating to effect a stable connection with an effort and a manufacturing time that are as small as possible.

A description is given of a component (1) having at least one area of plastic (3, 21), which extends with the surface (32) thereof that is facing a front side (28) along a reference plane (22). The component is characterized in that, in this area of plastic (3, 21), the wall of plastic (27) has a wall thickness (d) in the range of 0.2-5 mm, in this area of plastic (3, 21) there is formed a continuous two-dimensional grid (30) of channel-shaped depressions (6), in which depressions (6) the wall of plastic (27), while keeping substantially the same wall thickness (d), is offset out of the reference plane (22) by an offset (v) and, perpendicularly to the reference plane (22), in the depressions (6) the offset (v) lies in the range of 1.5 to 5 times the wall thickness (d) from the reference plane (22) to the surface (32) of the rear side (29), wherein the grid (30) forms a pattern comprising a multiplicity of grid cells (31) recurring in two directions of the reference plane (22).

An apparatus for hot drape forming a part includes a plurality of pyrometers, a bladder covering a formable material, and a pyrometer control medium positioned between the plurality of pyrometers and the formable material. The plurality of pyrometers are configured to measure a temperature of the pyrometer control medium.