A station for heating thermoplastic sheet-like blanks for a thermoforming line includes a heating carousel which can rotate continuously about a central axis and which has a number of heating heads radially spaced apart from the central axis. Each heating head is adapted to receive at least one respective thermoplastic sheet-like blank at a first peripheral region which is outside the carousel, to retain the at least one blank during the rotation of the carousel while supplying heat to it, and to release the at least one blank to a second peripheral region which is outside the carousel and is angularly spaced apart from the first region.

A flexible punch and die are used to form a flat composite laminate charge into a stiffener having a desired cross sectional shape. A desired contour is formed in the stiffener by bending the punch and die. Ply wrinkling is avoided during contouring by maintaining those portions of the stiffener subject to wrinkling in tension as the contouring is being performed. Bridging of the plies during the contouring process is avoided by first contouring those sections of the stiffener that are subject to wrinkling, and then contouring the remaining sections of the stiffener.

Illustrated and described are a method and a device for laminating a profiled fibre moulding with a thermoplastic film. The film is laminated onto a surface of the fibre moulding to be coated by heat and differential pressure. To improve the lamination of the fibre moulding and to achieve uniform lamination thicknesses over the entire fibre moulding, the method includes the following steps: fixing at least an edge of the fed film to a base plate, heating the film, deforming the film via a moulding tool, feeding the fibre moulding, joining the fibre moulding to the pre-formed film, and removing the laminated fibre moulding.

Described is a shoe upper for a shoe, in particular an athletic shoe, wherein the shoe upper is laceless and comprises: (a.) a lateral portion; (b.) a medial portion; and (c.) at least an elastic intermediate portion between the lateral portion and the medial portion, wherein the stiffness of at least one of the lateral portion and the medial portion is at least 2 times higher than the stiffness of the elastic intermediate portion.

A method of manufacturing a PTP sheet for pharmaceutical drug packaging from which a solid pharmaceutical drug is easily taken out and in which a pocket portion is hard to be accidentally damaged. The PTP sheet has a first sheet from which a pocket portion capable of housing a solid pharmaceutical drug protrudes to the side of an upper surface and a second sheet which is stuck to a lower surface of the first sheet and which closes an opening of the pocket portion. The pocket portion has a peripheral wall portion having a peripheral surface continuous with the upper surface and a top portion having a top surface continuous with the peripheral surface of the peripheral wall portion. A wall thickness of the peripheral wall portion is smaller than a wall thickness of the top portion.

A thermoplastic forming tool includes a wand that includes a handle, a tip, and a conduit coupling the handle to the tip. The tip includes a heating element, a forming shoe, and a forming shoe support. During use, heat from the heating element heats the forming shoe to a temperature at or above the glass transition temperature of a thermoplastic polymer. The thermoplastic forming tool may be used to apply a thermoplastic material to a surface.

A composite foam article is disclosed herein. The composite foam article comprises a polyurethane foam core presenting a first surface and a second surface facing opposite the first surface. A first skin is disposed on the first surface and a second skin is disposed on the second surface. The polyurethane foam core has a density of 15-80 kg/m.sup.3. The first and second skins comprise a plurality of fibers and a polymeric binder. The composite foam article has a weight per unit area of 500-1000 g/m.sup.2 and a strength of greater than 17 N at a post-compression thickness of greater than 2 mm when tested in according with SAE J949 at 23 C.

The invention relates to a ventilation module for a film stretching system at least one first outlet nozzle arrangement having an outlet nozzle, wherein the at least one outlet nozzle extends with its longitudinal direction transverse or perpendicular to the withdrawal direction of a plastic film web and is oriented in parallel to the transport plane. A first return system is provided with at least two extraction channels, each having an intake region. The at least two intake regions are spaced apart from one another in the withdrawal direction and oriented in parallel to the transport plane. The at least one outlet nozzle of the at least one first outlet nozzle arrangement is arranged between the first and the second intake region. The at least two intake regions are arranged exclusively before and/or after the at least one first outlet nozzle arrangement in the withdrawal direction of the plastic film web.

A rigid thermoplastic polymeric sheet material forming process. The process includes heating, while under a heating vacuum range, a rigid thermoplastic polymeric sheet in a heating zone to a forming temperature to form a heated rigid thermoplastic polymeric sheet material. The process further includes transferring, while under a feeding vacuum range, the heated rigid thermoplastic polymeric sheet material from the heating zone to feed the heated rigid thermoplastic polymeric sheet material into a forming zone under the feeding vacuum range. The process also includes forming, in the forming zone, the heated rigid thermoplastic sheet material into a formed article.

Systems and processes for thermoforming an article and for preparing an article for thermoforming are disclosed. The system for thermoforming can include one or more heating stations and a cooling station. The system for thermoforming can further include an article movement mechanism that can couple to an article and rotate the article inside a heating chamber, inside a cooling chamber, or both. The system for preparing an article for thermoforming can include a vessel that comprises a port, and a negative pressure generation system coupled to the port. The system for preparing an article for thermoforming can further include a compression material that forms an interior portion for receiving an article. The negative pressure generation system can cause the compression material to expand to allow for insertion of the article into the interior portion of the compression material.