A building panel has a deep drawn transparent film having an inner face and a structure having solar cells on the inner face of the deep-drawn film. The structure has an inner face turned away from the film and an outer face on or closely juxtaposed with the inner face of the film. A reinforcement layer constituted as a mass of foamed granular particles is spread over the inner face of the structure in direct contact with the inner face of the structure without the interposition of an adhesive and is heat cured to the film.

The present invention relates to a copolymer having polyamide blocks and having polyether blocks (PEBA) which can be used for the manufacture of an article, preferably a foamed article. The invention also relates to expanded particles prepared from said copolymer and to the manufacture of a foamed article from said expanded particles.

Device (1) for processing a particle foam material for producing a particle foam molded part, comprising: at least one functional unit (2), through at least portions of which at least one working medium that is or can be used in the operation of the device (1) flows or can flow during operation of the device (1), at least one supply unit (7) for supplying the or at least one working medium that is or can be used in the operation of the device (1) to the at least one functional unit (2), at least one discharge unit (10) for discharging the or at least one working medium that is or can be used in the operation of the device (1) from the at least one functional unit (2), at least one preparation unit (13) which is or can be connected to the at least one supply unit (7) and/or to the at least one discharge unit (10) and is designed for preparing the or at least one working medium that is or can be used in the operation of the device (1).

A manufacturing method for a car safety seat includes the following steps: providing a mold and disposing a main body of the car safety seat into the mold, and injecting a foam material into a cavity of the mold and foaming the foam material so as to form a flexible layer integrated with the main body. A pressure in the cavity is between 1.5 bar and 5.0 bar. The manufacturing method disposes the main body into the mold and directly forms a flexible layer on the main body, so that the flexible layer ensures safety and comfort of the car safety seat while saves the necessity to dispose a seat pad or a cushion and fixing structures on the main body, and thereby reduces the cost and the work-hour of assembly, and the overall weight of the car safety seat can be reduced by omitting the fixing structures.

A manufacturing method for a child carrying device includes the following steps: providing a mold and disposing a main body of the child carrying device into the mold, and injecting a foam material into a cavity of the mold and foaming the foam material so as to form a flexible layer integrated with the main body. The manufacturing method disposes the main body into the mold and directly forms a flexible layer on the main body, so that the flexible layer ensures safety and comfort of the child carrying device while saves the necessity to dispose a seat pad or a cushion and fixing structures on the main body, and thereby reduces the cost and the work-hour of assembly, and the overall weight of the child carrying device can be reduced by omitting the fixing structures.

A method for producing a foamed particle molded article provided with a skin, includes: forming a hollow molded article; filling a hollow part of the hollow molded article with polypropylene-based resin foamed particles; and heating and fusing the particles to each other. A melt elongation at 190° C. of the polypropylene-based resin forming the hollow molded article is 100 m/min or more. A half-crystallization time at 100° C. of the polypropylene-based resin is between 25 to 80 seconds. In heat flux differential scanning calorimetry, a melting peak temperature of the polypropylene-based resin is between 130 to 155° C., a partial heat of fusion at 140° C. or more of the polypropylene-based resin is between 20 to 50 J/g, and a ratio of the partial heat of fusion of the polypropylene-based resin to the total (partial heat of fusion/total heat of fusion) is between 0.2 to 0.8.

A laminated article includes a thermoplastic resin expanded beads molded layer A having a volume Va and a tensile modulus TMa which is 2 to 100 MPa, and a thermoplastic elastomer expanded beads molded layer B having a volume Vb and a tensile modulus TMb which is 0.05 MPa or more and less than 2 MPa, the layers A and B being laminated and bonded to each other. Va:Vb is 90:10 to 50:50 and TMb/TMa is 0.025 or less.

A method for producing expanded particles having a high expansion ratio by a pressure-release expansion with a simpler configuration and at a low facility cost is provided. A production device includes an expansion cylinder being provided with a connecting port that connects with open-system branch cylinder and having a space of a saturated steam atmosphere. The space of a saturated steam atmosphere may be a different space from a space inside the branch cylinder. A temperature (T1) inside the expansion chamber exceeds 102° C. and is not higher than a higher one of 108° C. and a temperature obtained by a melting point Tm of a thermoplastic resin minus 14° C. A temperature (T2) at a connecting port is not lower than 100° C., and the temperature (T1) is higher than the temperature (T2).

Methods of making molded foam articles. The methods include introducing steam into a mold simultaneous to filling the mold with foam particles. The method can be performed faster and with a lower ΔT 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 and improved foam particle fusion as compared to conventional molding processes.

The present invention relates to a method of controlling a step of a process carried out by a machine. The invention is characterized in that a sensor is used to measure a variable characteristic with an exponential course for a step, and with the aid of several consecutive measurements of the characteristic variable a time constant of the exponential change is determined, and the step is ended after it has been carried out for a period of time corresponding to a predetermined multiple of the time constant.