Disclosed herein is an all-in-one methodology for the fabrication and the programming of soft machines. Instead of relying on the assembly of individual parts, the disclosed approach harnesses interfacial flows in elastomers that progressively cure to robustly produce monolithic pneumatic actuators whose shape can easily be tailored to suit applications ranging from artificial muscles to grippers. Rationalized herein are the fluid mechanics at play in the assembly of the disclosed actuators and modeled herein are their subsequent morphing. This quantitative knowledge was leveraged to program these soft machines and produce complex functionalities, for example sequential motion obtained from a monotonic stimulus. It is expected that the flexibility, robustness, and predictive nature of the disclosed methodology will accelerate the proliferation of soft robotics by enabling the assembly of complex actuators, for example long, tortuous, or vascular structures, thereby paving the way towards new functionalities stemming from geometric and material nonlinearities.

An openable vehicle roof having a wind deflector device which contains a wind deflector bow, which is produced from plastic material and has a central wind deflector profiled element having lateral deployment arms. At least the wind deflector profiled element has a profile leg, which delimits a groove, which is formed on the wind deflector profiled element and is open at the bottom and runs longitudinally, and the profile leg has, on the interior thereof facing the groove, a molded-on or attached fastening apparatus for an add-on part. A tool for producing a wind deflector bow is provided.

The disclosure relates to a polyamide composition including (i) at least one aliphatic polyamide comprising repeating units derived from the polycondensation of hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid; (ii) at least one semi-aromatic polyamide comprising repeating units derived from the polycondensation of hexamethylenediamine, adipic acid and at least one aromatic dicarboxylic acid; (iii) at least one fibrous filler; (iv) at least one particulate filler; (v) at least one heat stabilizer; and (vi) at least one further additive. The polyamide composition exhibits excellent processing properties in the preparation of articles using liquid-assisted injection moulding processes.

An additive injection system for use in injection molding machines to inject additive materials, such as fluids or powders, downstream of a nozzle of the injection molding machine. The additive injection unit has an additive tank to store or contain additive material and additive injectors that inject an additive material into an injection molding machine. A pump pumps the additive material from the tank through a common manifold connected to the additive injectors to be injected into the injection molding machine. A controller controls operation of the additive injection device and one or more sensors coupled to the additive injection device can provide feedback to the controller.

A method of determining a target value of a state variable includes preparing a mixture of the molding material and the gas with different test values of the state variable, and the mixture is respectively compressed or decompressed. In the compression or decompression step, the state variable of the mixture and/or a further state variable of the mixture is measured directly or indirectly, and determination values of a compression behavior variable characteristic of the compression behavior of the mixture are determined from the measurement values. A criterion directed to a solution state of the gas is checked, and a lowest or highest value of the state variable is deduced at which the gas is in solution in the molding material. The lowest or highest value of the state variable at which the gas is in solution in the molding material is used as the target value.

A plastic article is recited having a plastic shell including walls defining a cavity. Within the cavity is an in-situ foam core including expanded polymer beads. A layer of the expanded polymer beads includes a layer of distorted beads adjacent to the walls. The in-situ foam core has a thermal bond to the walls.

A roof rail for a vehicle is provided that is made of only one piece and is solid across its length. The roof rail may be made using a co-injection molding process, a two-shot injection molding process or an extrusion molding process.

The invention relates to a method for producing a tube by injection molding a thermoplastic molding compound by using an injection-molding device with an article cavity, which defines the outer contour of the tube, and with an injection device, which is designed to drive a profile through the article cavity filled with the thermoplastic molding compound and thereby displace a liquid core of the molding compound, wherein the method envisages closing an opening of the article cavity with a mould core, which with the article cavity forms a hollow mould space and which has a secondary cavity that can be filled with the molding compound. After the filling of the article cavity and the hollow mould space with the thermoplastic molding compound, a projectile is driven through the article cavity, wherein the projectile displaces the molding compound into the secondary cavity. Subsequently, the mould core with the filled secondary cavity is pulled, wherein the displaced molding compound is separated from the molding compound forming the tube. The invention also relates to an injection-molding device for carrying out the method.

A method for manufacturing a hollow part with a branch, including a resin filling step of filling a mold, the mold having a main cavity in which a hollowing piece is placed, and a branch cavity to communicate with the main cavity, in which a slide shaft is inserted to advance and withdraw, and that forms a branch pipe portion in an annular space between the branch cavity and the slide shaft, a step of forming a hollow main pipe portion by moving the hollowing piece to force excess resin out of the main cavity, and a shaft removing step of withdrawing the slide shaft to form a branch hollow portion, the hollow part with a branch being made of a resin and having the branch pipe portion integrally connected to the main pipe portion such that the main hollow portion and the branch hollow portion communicate with each other.

A load bearing panel member having a first portion, a second portion, and an appearance surface portion is formed by injection molding such that the first portion includes a plurality of ribs forming a grid pattern on the first portion and another plurality of ribs extending toward the periphery of the first portion which may be non-orthogonal to each other and to the ribs forming the grid pattern. An appearance surface portion attached to the first portion and second portion of the panel member forms an integral hinge between the first and second portions of the panel member. The panel member may be configured as a floor panel of a vehicle.