A plastic container comprises an upper portion including a finish defining an opening into the container, a lower portion including a base defining a standing surface, a sidewall extending between the upper portion and the lower portion, the sidewall defining a longitudinal axis, and at least one substantially transversely-oriented pressure panel located in the lower portion. The pressure panel is movable between an outwardly-inclined position and an inwardly-inclined position to compensate for a change of pressure inside the container. The standing surface defines a standing plane, and the entire pressure panel is located between the standing plane and the upper portion of the container when the pressure panel is in the outwardly-inclined position.

A forming unit (20) for forming plastic preforms into plastic bottles, wherein the forming unit comprises a blow mould (20) having a first lateral portion (4), a second lateral portion (6) and a bottom portion (2), wherein said lateral portions as well as the bottom portion (2) form a cavity (15), within which the plastic preforms (10) can be formed into the plastic bottles, wherein the bottom portion (2) can be moved relative to the lateral portions (4) in a closed condition of the blow mould, wherein the forming unit (20) comprises a drive unit in order to move the bottom portion (2) relative to the lateral portions (4, 6), wherein the drive unit preferably has a movable piston element (32) which ist movable along a predefined stroke path. According to the invention, the apparatus has a first stroke path limiting means (22, 24) that limits the stroke path of the bottom portion (2) and/or of the piston element (32) in a first direction, wherein this stroke path limiting means (22, 24) is adjustable in order to modify the stroke path.

A substrate has a body defined at least in part by a single piece of aluminum or aluminum alloy material having a cavity and a pinch-off or other feature area and further having a metal-matrix composite (MMC) layer formed integrally in the body at the pinch-off or other feature area. A process of producing a substrate involves machining a single piece of material to provide a body having a surface and a feature area, the feature area being of smaller dimension than required for the piece, integrally forming a metal-matrix composite layer in the feature area to build up the feature area to at least a dimension required for the piece. The metal-matrix composite comprises an aluminum-nickel alloy matrix (e.g. Al-12Si alloy alloyed with Ni) having WC particles embedded therein or a aluminum matrix (e.g. Al-12Si alloy) having TiC particles embedded therein and has greater wear resistance, greater strength, greater toughness or any combination thereof than the material.

A process is provided for making a blow-molded PET container comprising a wall having a density of between about 1.370 g/cc and 1.385 g/cc, a heat-induced crystallinity of from about 18% to about 25%, and a strain-induced crystallinity of from about 55% to about 75%, wherein the PET container, when filled with a liquid having a temperature of from about 100 C. to about 132 C. or when subjected to a pasteurization or retort process, will not experience a change in volume of greater than 3%.

Provided is a method for manufacturing a container 10 made of resin, the method including an injection molding step S1, a temperature adjustment step S2, and a blow molding step S3. In the temperature adjustment step S2, a preform 11 is accommodated in a cavity mold 31, an air introduction member 32 is brought into airtight contact with the preform 11, the air is supplied from a blowing port of the air introduction member 32 into the preform 11, and the air is discharged from a discharge port of the air introduction member 32 to an outside of the preform 11, so that the preform 11 is in close contact with an inner wall of the cavity mold 31 and is cooled.

A temperature adjustment mold capable of performing local temperature adjustment in an axial direction from the inside of a preform while restricting shrinkage and deformation of the preform, for adjusting a temperature of an injection-molded bottomed resin-made preform includes a rod portion inserted into the preform and extending in the axial direction of the preform. The rod portion includes an annular projection portion that protrudes in a radial direction of the rod portion and contacts an inner peripheral surface of the preform. The rod portion contacts a bottom portion of the preform to restrict shrinkage in the axial direction of the preform. The projection portion restricts shrinkage in a radial direction of the preform, conducts heat between the rod portion and the preform, and adjusts a temperature at a predetermined part in an axial direction of the preform.

A manufacturing method includes an injection molding process of injection-molding a preform, a temperature adjustment process of temperature-adjusting the preform while cooling the preform, and a blow molding process of blow-molding the temperature-adjusted preform to manufacture a resin container. In the injection molding process, a step portion thicker than at least an engagement groove of a neck portion is formed between the neck portion and a body portion of the preform.

A heat-insulating transparent PVC sheet is formed from a PVC substrate having a thickness of 0.02-2.0 mm and contains heat-insulation pastes evenly distributed over the PVC substrate, since the heat-insulation paste contains an essential component of wolfram cesium powder (WCs) with a chemical formula of Cs.sub.XN.sub.YWO.sub.3-ZCl.sub.C and having a particle size of 0.005-2 m, the heat-insulating transparent PVC sheet has an excellent weatherability, and particularly before and after tested in 300-hour service life in line with ASTM G-154 specification, has a physical property of weatherability decay rate (%) small than 4%.

A device and a method for the thermal reshaping of hose blanks from preferably pre-extruded elastic raw hose material, wherein during the reshaping, the hose blank is arranged in a shell-like, single- or multi-piece molding tool with a hollow body, wherein the tempering of the molding tool that is necessary for reshaping occurs by means of clamp-like tempering elements which are shaped congruently to the outer surface of the mold and which close form-fittingly over the mold, while the molding tool itself does not comprise any tempering system at all, in particular no ducts or other hollow spaces for circulating a tempering medium, and wherein the temperature of each tempering element is kept constant during the process, while, to modify the temperature of the molding tool, a different tempering element with a correspondingly constant temperature is positioned against the molding tool.

Molding unit (1) for the forming of a container (2) provided with a hollow recess (3), comprising: a mold (5) provided with a lateral wall (6) defining a cavity (7) and provided with a pocket (9) that comes out into the cavity (7); a boxing device (11) comprising: an insert (12) mounted in translation in the pocket (9) relative to the lateral wall (6) and provided with at least one passage (81) opening out; an actuator (16) integral with the insert (12) and provided with a piston (17) mounted in a chamber (22) defined in the wall (6) of the mold (5), the piston (17) subdividing the chamber (22) into a rear half-chamber (22A) in communication with a primary fluid duct (46), and a front half-chamber (22B) in communication, on the one hand, with a secondary fluid duct (50) and, on the other hand, with the pocket (9).