A skin-covered foamed molded article having excellent lightweight property, bending rigidity, and favorable dimensional stability, which includes: a skin material composed of a hollow molded body produced by blow-molding an extruded parison; and an expanded bead molded article located inside the skin material, wherein the skin material has an average wall thickness of from 1.0 mm to 5.0 mm, the skin material includes a glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene-based resin containing glass fiber in a range of from 5 mass % to 30 mass %, the glass fiber has a weight-average fiber length of from 0.4 mm to 1.5 mm, the expanded bead molded article includes a polypropylene-based resin, the peeling strength between the skin material and the expanded bead molded article is 0.1 MPa or higher, and the longitudinal linear expansion coefficient of the skin-covered foamed molded article (100) at from 23° C. to 80° C. is 7×10−5/° C. or lower.

The invention relates, among other things, to a method of making a thin panel (10) for outdoor applications, comprising, among other things, the following steps: a) providing a deep-drawable film (10) of a transparent plastic, b) deep-drawing the film (11) in a mold (34), c) mounting a structure (19) having solar cells (32) on an inner face (16) of the deep-drawn film (12), d) placing the deep-drawn film (12) with mounted structure (19) in a cavity (33) of a mold (34) having in particular at least two mold halves (13, 14), e) introducing a liquid polyurethane casting compound (24) into the cavity (33) of the mold (34) and spreading the polyurethane casting compound (24) over an inner face (18) of the structure (19) and/or over the inner face (16) of the film (12), f) curing the polyurethane casting compound, in particular with the mold closed, to form a reinforcement layer (30), or comprising the following steps j) and k) instead of the steps e) and f): j) introducing a granular particle foam mass into the cavity (33) of the mold (34) and spreading over an inner face (18) of the structure (19) and/or over the inner face (16) of the film (12), k) baking and curing the particle foam mass, in particular with the mold closed, to form a reinforcement layer (30).

A hygiene product, in particular an oral hygiene product, includes at least one application unit, further includes at least one handle unit that is connected to the application unit, and includes at least one volume body, which at least partially forms the application unit and/or the handle unit and which is made at least partially of a foamed material, wherein the hygiene product includes at least one base body, which is connected to the volume body and which at least partially forms the application unit and/or the handle unit, wherein the at least one volume body is molded to the at least one base body.

Mold for processing expandable or expanded plastic particles for producing a multi-component particle foam component, that includes a mold cavity delimited by mold walls, having at least one mold element, which in particular is slide-like or slide-shaped, wherein the at least one mold element is mounted so as to be movable between a first orientation and/or position and at least one further orientation and/or position in which it projects at least in portions into the mold cavity, and wherein the at least one mold element is designed with, or has, a flow channel structure having at least one flow channel which extends inside the mold element and through which a process fluid can flow.

The present invention disclosed a foam product and the manufacturing method thereof. The foam product includes a foam core, an outer skin, a cross-linked foam sheet and a bottom plate, wherein the aforementioned layers are all pre-made. The cross-linked foam sheet is laminated onto a bottom surface of the foam core, and the outer skin is then laminated onto a top surface and a periphery of the foam core. Lastly, the bottom plate is laminated onto the cross-linked foam sheet, wherein, the bottom plate has a non cross-linked foam sheet and a non-foam plastic plate, so that when the bottom plate is laminated onto the crossed-link foam sheet, the non cross-linked foam sheet is sandwiched between the cross-linked foam sheet and the non-foam plastic plate.

Method for controlling the operation of a device for producing a particle foam component, wherein the device includes at least one function unit, which is controllable during its operation in respect of at least one target value. The method includes selecting, selection, on the basis of at least one selection criterion, of a control parameter set from a data storage unit, in which a plurality of control parameter sets are stored, which each has at least one control parameter for controlling the operation of at least one function unit of the device in respect of at least one target value; and applying the at least one selected control parameter set to control the operation of the device, in particular to control the operation of the function unit of the device affected by the particular control parameter set.

Methods of making molded polystyrene articles are described. The methods include introducing steam into a mold simultaneous to filling the mold with foam particles, and cooling the mold without the use of cooling water. The method can be performed faster and with a lower temperature differential than conventional molding processes, permitting faster turn-around to the production of subsequent molded articles. The molded articles produced by the method can have thicker side walls, improved foam particle fusion, and improved compression properties as compared to conventional EPS molding processes.

A polymer composite contains tubular particles, which contain at least one resin with fibres embedded. The tubular particles have an average length in the range of 0.5 mm to 60 mm and an average wall thickness in the range of 0.0005 mm to 30 mm, whereas the fibers have an average diameter in the range of 0.0005 mm to 5.0 mm. A process can be used to prepare the polymer composite containing tubular particles. The polymer composite can be used as a cushioning material, which can be formed into a cushioning article such as a shoe sole, a furniture cushion, a bed mattress, an automotive seat cushion, a flooring substrate, an outdoor/walking surface, a mat, a pad, and the like.

The present invention provides expanded beads comprising a crosslinked multi-block copolymer containing an ethylene block and an ethylene-α-olefin copolymer block, having an apparent density of 40 to 300 g/L, a gel fraction of 30 to 70% by weight by a hot xylene extraction method, an average cell diameter (a) of 50 to 180 μm, and an average surface layer thickness (b) of 3 to 27 μm, and the expanded beads are excellent in in-mold moldability, and can produce an expanded beads molded article being excellent in tensile characteristics in a well balanced manner.

A method of making molded foam articles and the articles produced. A molded foam article is produced by heating or preheating the mold to a temperature at or above the glass transition or melt temperature of the particles to be molded. Foamed particles are then introduced into the mold. The particle filled mold is then subjected to a vacuum to stabilize the molded article, without application of any additional heating or cooling. The molded article is then removed from the mold at a temperature at or below the glass transition temperature of the particles, and the cycle repeated to form multiple molded articles.