The porous microwell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that as a porous microwell which is a cell culture surface for culturing cells, at least one thereof is indented in a downward direction and is located within a region formed by a penetrating part of a cell culture vessel, and the porous microwell includes a plurality of pores together with a connection part formed therearound, and a first porosity formed by first pores thereof and a second porosity formed by second pores formed in the connection part are different from each other.

A device for attaching a mouthpiece to an innerliner of an aircraft water tank is provided. A cylinder portion of an innerliner is thermally deformed to conform to an inner circumferential portion of a cylinder-like portion, and an inner circumferential portion of a dome portion of the innerliner is attached to a skirt portion by an adhesive. A lower mold includes two sections inserted inside the innerliner from the inner side of a mouthpiece in a folded state. The two sections are opened inside the innerliner and a holding member holds the two sections in an open state. The lower mold can be disposed in the innerliner sealed from the inner side of the mouthpiece, and abutment of an outer abutting surface of an upper mold against a first annular surface and abutment of an inner abutting surface of the lower mold against a second annular surface can be performed.

Methods and apparatus are provided for forming a patient-specific surgical implant based on mold system. The apparatus comprises a forming tool and a mold that may be generated using imaging and processing techniques and rapid prototyping methods. The mold apparatus includes at least two non-adjacent surface features for securing an implant forming material (such as a titanium mesh) during the forming process, enabling the implant forming material to be stretched beyond its elastic and thus permanently deformed with the correct patient-specific curvature. The implant may include one or more anatomic surface features for guidance and registration when transferring the implant to a patient.

Improved separator film compositions, methods and systems for use in producing thermoformed dental appliances are disclosed.

A thermoforming machine is provided having at least one frame member and a thermal regulator. The thermal regulator is provided in heat transfer relation with one of the at least one frame member configured to control temperature of the one frame member to mitigate thermal deformation of the frame member. A method is also provided.

Optical films having a curved shaped and methods of shaping optical films are described. A method of shaping an optical film includes the steps of disposing the optical film adjacent first and second rollers spaced apart along a first direction, securing opposing first and second ends of the optical film, providing a curved mold surface, and shaping the optical film by contacting the optical film with the curved mold surface while stretching the optical film along the first direction and keeping a threshold distance between closest points on the optical film contacting the first roller and contacting the curved mold surface less than the width of the optical film to reduce buckling of the optical film.

A device for manufacturing a 3D forming film performs molding at a uniform pressure by using a variable volume body, and thus, enables undercut portion molding, prevents thermal corrugation on the curved portion, etc., of the forming film and the distortion of the forming film, reduces a thickness deviation of the forming film and excludes an additional cutting process after molding the forming film, thereby improving the quality of the 3D-molded forming film. The device for manufacturing the 3D forming film includes: a mold for molding a forming film; a press head unit which is positioned to correspond to the mold and has a variable spaced distance from the mold; and a variable volume body which is coupled to the press head unit and has elasticity so that a volume thereof is variable due to gas introduction and discharge by the press head unit.

A molding changing apparatus having a holder, a cooling plate, and a mold set coupled to the cooling plate is disclosed. The cooling plate has at least one connecting pin disposed on the surface which is reverse to the surface where the mold set is disposed, and the holder has at least one pneumatic pin receptacle disposed thereon. The connecting pin of the cooling plate can be inserted into the connecting hole of the pneumatic pin receptacle of the holder, and the connecting pin is fastened by the pneumatic pin receptacle, thereby connecting the mold set and the cooling plate to the holder. Through the use of the connecting pin and the pneumatic pin receptacle, the mold set and the cooling plate on the holder can be changed rapidly and the efficiency of the plastic vacuum forming with mold sets is enhanced.

Methods for fabricating three-dimensional microstructures are provided. The method includes disposing a reflow material on a mold, heating the reflow material, and creating a pressure gradient across the reflow material to reflow the material towards a bottom surface of the mold. The mold includes a molding region, a boundary region, and a thermal-isolating region disposed therebetween. The molding region includes a cavity and a projection projecting upwards from a bottom surface of the cavity. The thermal-isolating region includes at least one pocket formed adjacent to and along a perimeter of the cavity of the molding region. During heating, the temperature of the molding region is higher than that of the boundary region and the thermal-isolating region controls the thermal conductivity and mass therebetween. The material reflows towards the bottom surface of the cavity and the protrusion helps shapes the reflow material to form a substantially symmetrical three-dimensional microstructure.

A resin molding apparatus provided with a first mold and a second mold for pressing a flat thermoplastic resin sheet into a molded article, wherein the molded article has a shape provided with a flat plate part and a concave-convex part continuous with the flat plate part, and a heating part is provided to locally heat a concave-convex molding region corresponding to the concave-convex part in the thermoplastic resin sheet when the thermoplastic resin sheet is pressed.