A duct that, in cross section, has one or more rounded portions is disclosed together with a method and a machine for producing it. The duct can be made from rigid foam panels with a facing on at east one side of the panels. A crimping element is used to form several substantially parallel indentations or crimps on a faced side of a panel, without breaching the facing, so that the crimped panel can be manipulated to form a section of duct with the crimps extending longitudinally. Depending on the number of crimps, the duct will appear more or less round in cross section although the crimped foam panels can be manipulated to have cross sections of different shapes such as oval. Adjacent duct sections may be joined, for example, with tape or bands, several of which are described.

A thermoforming method includes forming a skin comprising a plurality of plies thermoplastic resin and fiber, securing an edge of the skin to a mandrel, heating, via a heating element, the skin to a forming temperature, moving a thermoforming apparatus with respect to the mandrel, rolling at least one roller of the thermoforming apparatus along the skin in a direction away from the clamped edge of the skin in response to the thermoforming apparatus moving with respect to the mandrel, and in response to the at least one roller of the thermoforming apparatus rolling along the skin, compressing the skin between the at least one roller and the mandrel, consolidating the plurality of plies of material, and bending the skin to conform to a shape of the mandrel. The consolidated and formed skin is then cooled and removed from the mandrel.

Sunshade system for a vehicle roof assembly, comprising a flexible sunscreen having at least a main part with two opposite lateral edges with guiding strips attached thereto. Each guiding strip comprises inwardly foldable parts foldable inwardly towards a centerline of the sunshade in an acute angle with the main part of the guiding strips and being folded flat in the same plane as the main part when the sunscreen is wound on the shaft. A foldable first hinge part extends in longitudinal direction of said strip formed as a depression. Two opposed longitudinal guides are provided with locking members and with guide chambers for engaging the inwardly foldable part of the flexible sunscreen. Each guiding strip is made of thermoplastic material and comprises at least a second hinge part extending parallel to the first hinge part, longitudinally along the guiding strip.

The invention relates to a device (1) for producing a curved preform (9) from flat semi-finished fiber material (8), comprising a shearing unit (2), which has at least two rotating rolling elements (3a, 4a), arranged spaced apart in a conveying direction (11), and a control unit (6) connected to the rolling elements, wherein at least one of the rolling elements is formed in a pivotal or tilting manner and a semi-finished fiber material sensing device (7) is provided, which is formed for sensing position information of the semi-finished fiber material conveyed through the shearing unit, wherein the control unit is further arranged for pivoting or tilting the at least one rolling element during the conveyance of the semi-finished fiber material, depending on the sensed position information from the semi-finished fiber material sensing device.

The present disclosure provides method, computing device readable medium, and devices for dental appliances formed with folded material components. An example of a method of forming a dental appliance, includes forming a shell having a number of tooth apertures configured to receive and reposition a number of teeth of a patient along one jaw of a patient, the shell having a number of specialized components and wherein the number of specialized components are formed from folding multiple sections of the first sheet of material over each other.

For forming profile elements, in particular trapezoidal or -shaped profile elements, from a multilayer stacking of pre-impregnated fibers, the stacking is moved in feed direction with feed speed by sets of conveyor belts which engage with the upper and lower surfaces of the lateral edge sections of the stacking and hold the edge sections in a starting plane. The sets of conveyor belts are arranged so that the distance between the sets engaging with opposite edge sections decreases in feed direction. To conduct the forming step a middle portion of the stacking is moved over a ramp upwardly inclined in feed direction with respect to the starting plane.

A method for placing a piece of a composite material. The piece of the composite material is picked up from a source using an end effector. The piece is moved to a tool using the end effector. The piece is placed on the tool using the end effector. The piece is conformed to a shape of the tool using a roller system in the end effector, in which the roller system is moveable to conform the piece to a shape of the tool.

A blanket assembly for forming a composite charge onto a forming mandrel includes upper and lower heating blankets configured to have a composite charge slidable therebetween during translation along the forming mandrel. The blanket assembly has a pair of wedge elements with tapered sections that are each positionable between the lower heating blanket and the mandrel side surfaces. The wedge element top sides are inclined from the tapered section forward end to the tapered section aft end. The upper heating blanket exerts a blanket forming pressure for progressively forming the composite charge into the cross-sectional shape of the forming mandrel collectively defined by the mandrel side surfaces and wedge element top sides as the composite charge passes over the tapered sections of the blanket assembly. The wedge element top sides maintain the laterally outboard portions of the composite charge in approximately parallel relation to a level tangent to the mandrel top portion.

A lighting device is disclosed that comprises a glass tube (10); a solid state lighting assembly in said glass tube, said assembly comprising an electrically insulating optical film (20) comprising at least one arcuate portion lining a part (12) of the inner surface of the glass tube, wherein the glass tube further comprises a further part (14) defining a light exit portion; and a plurality of solid state lighting elements (32) on a carrier (30), said carrier contacting said optical film; a thermally conductive member (40, 42) in between at least a part of the solid state lighting assembly and the glass tube for thermally coupling the solid state lighting elements to the glass tube; and a transparent or translucent electrically insulating cover (50, 60) contacting the electrically insulating optical film and covering the solid state lighting elements. A luminaire including such a lighting device and a lighting device assembly method are also disclosed.

The present disclosure provides method, computing device readable medium, and devices for dental appliances formed with folded material components. An example of a method of forming a dental appliance, includes forming a shell having a number of tooth apertures configured to receive and reposition a number of teeth of a patient along one jaw of a patient, the shell having a number of specialized components and wherein the number of specialized components are formed from folding multiple sections of the first sheet of material over each other.