A protective guard for a hand, finger or thumb includes a first thermoplastic layer heat welded to second thermoplastic layer. The second thermoplastic layer has a thickness that is greater than the thickness of the first thermoplastic layer.

An applicator mitt assembly system comprises an applicator mitt tooling including: a tooling body having a mitt-perimeter cutter and weld bead thereon which are shaped to a perimeter of a mitt to be cut; a heating element associated with the tooling body which is shaped so as to substantially match a shape of the weld bead to create a perimeter weld for the mitt when engaged with the tooling body; and an ejector platen which is actuatable relative to the tooling body to eject a cut and welded mitt. A conveyor device is adapted to feed mitt material towards the tooling and a tooling actuator adapted to actuate the tooling relative to the conveyor device to allow the cutter to cut mitt material at the conveyor device. A discrete applicator mitt tooling, method of assembling an applicator mitt, and welded applicator mitt are also provided.

A vertical form fill and seal system supports a sheet of material having material segments and a tube sized for drawing edges of the elongated sheet of material together in an overlapping configuration to form the sheet into a substantially tube shape. The VFFS also includes a sealer that seals the edges of the material to one another and a gusseting mechanism sized for forming a gusseted tuck in each of a left panel portion of the material and a right panel portion of the material. A cutting mechanism removes a first portion and a second portion of a first segment of the material segments in order to form a first cut and a second cut in the first segment and a sealing mechanism folds and seals the first segment at the first cut and at the second cut to provide an end wall with a substantially flat, rectangular-shaped footprint.

The present invention relates to a method for welding a 3D bellows. The method includes: repeatedly laminating a unit cell material, a second adhesion-preventing film, a different unit cell material, and a first adhesion-preventing film; forming ventilation holes on the unit cell materials by pressing a hole-processing cutter on which a hole-circumference welding heater is installed onto the laminated unit cell materials and the first adhesion-preventing films, and then heating the circumference of the ventilation holes; finishing two sides of the unit cells by positioning, on two outermost surfaces of the laminated unit cell materials, a first finishing unit cell material and a second finishing unit cell material provided with an air injection port; and cutting the first finishing unit cell material, the unit cell materials, and the second finishing unit cell material and heating the periphery of the cut area by pressing a contour-processing cutter.

The invention relates to a stamp-sealing unit comprising a punch designed as a sonotrode (8), and a die (5), said die (5) having an opening (15) and the punch being able to be moved in and out of the opening (15) in the stamping direction. The invention also relates to an ultrasonic processing device for stamping stamped parts out of a stamping material (2) and for sealing the stamped parts to unprocessed products (21).

Aspects of the disclosure relate to manufacturing a balloon envelope for use in a stratospheric balloon system. For instance, a stream of polyethylene mixture us extruded through an extruder in order to orient molecules of polymer chains of polyethylene and to provide an oriented film. The oriented film is passed through an electron beam and thereby crosslinking the polymer chains to provide a cross-linked film. The cross-linked film is heat sealed to form the balloon envelope

The invention relates to a plastics connecting seam for the fluid-tight connection of at least two plastics surfaces. The plastics connecting seam is in the form of a plastics connecting seam that supports strength under a load in such a way that a load acting in a standard load direction increases the connection strength of the seam.

An applicator mitt assembly system comprises an applicator mitt tooling including: a tooling body having a mitt-perimeter cutter and weld bead thereon which are shaped to a perimeter of an applicator mitt to be cut; a heating element associated with the tooling body, the heating element being shaped so as to match or substantially match a shape of the weld bead so as to create a perimeter weld for the applicator mitt when engaged with the tooling body; and an ejector platen which is actuatable relative to the tooling body to eject a cut and welded mitt away from the tooling body. The system can further comprise a conveyor device adapted to feed uncut and unwelded mitt material towards the applicator mitt tooling and a tooling actuator adapted to actuate the applicator mitt tooling relative to the conveyor device.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to systems and techniques for inspecting seals for high altitude balloons. In one example, a system may include a reflective surface, a translucent material on the reflective surface, and a movable light source configured to move along the reflective surface and provide light to the reflective surface. The light is provided such that it is reflected from the reflective surface and through the translucent material in order to backlight a balloon envelope seal for inspection. A method for inspecting a balloon envelope seal may include placing balloon envelope material on a table, forming a seal between portions of the material, moving a light over the seal, shining light onto a reflective portion of the table below the seal to backlight the seal, and inspecting the seal using the backlighting of the seal.

A first sheet layer made of a nonwoven fabric; a second sheet layer made of a nonwoven fabric opposed to one side of the first sheet layer; and a plurality of elongated elastically stretchable members provided along the stretchable direction at intervals from each other between the first sheet layer and the second sheet layer are provided. At least a part of each end of the elastically stretchable member is fixed to at least one of the first sheet layer and the second sheet layer only via a first hot melt adhesive. The first sheet layer and the second sheet layer are bonded via a second hot melt adhesive in a range in the stretchable direction corresponding to a space between the both ends of the elastically stretchable member. The holding power of the first hot melt adhesive is higher than the second hot meld adhesive.