A method is provided for surface smoothing an additively manufactured shaped part consisting of plastic. The method has an explosion step with which the surface of the shaped part is smoothed in a process chamber by igniting a combustible process gas introduced into the process chamber, the surface of the shaped part being partly dissolved in at least some sections by the ignited process gas. Also provided is a device for surface smoothing additively manufactured shaped parts consisting of plastic.

A preform is provided for blow-molding to form a container. The preform includes a finish portion for rotatably engaging a closure to seal contents within an interior of the container. The finish portion comprises a cylindrical body that begins at an opening to the interior and extends to and includes a tamper evidence ledge. A bevel at a beginning of the opening receives a plug seal of the closure. A sealing surface adjacent to the bevel is disposed along an interior of the finish portion and includes a polished buffer zone to cooperate with the plug seal to seal the container. A transition surface extends from the sealing surface to a handling surface that receives equipment to form the preform into the container. In some embodiments, the transition surface includes a polished buffer zone to cooperate with an end of the plug seal to seal the contents in the container.

When a hollow molded body using a preform to be molded with a thin bottom portion is produced while taking advantage of the roughening of the outer surface of an injection core mold, transferred roughening marks are prevented from appearing on the bottom portion of hollow molded bodies, so that the hollow molded body with an aesthetic bottom portion is obtained. An injection core mold (12) has an outer surface of its tip portion corresponding to a preform bottom portion (10) and a lower end portion (14a) of a preform body portion (14). The outer surface corresponding to the preform bottom portion (10) and the lower end portion (14a) of the preform body portion (14) is a mirror-finished surface (20), and the outer surface of the injection core mold for forming the preform other than the mirror-finished surface is a roughened surface (15).

The present invention refers to a method for polishing polyamide objects obtained by additive manufacturing or 3D printing techniques, which comprises immersion of the polyamide object in a mixture of formic acid and dichloromethane at room temperature for a period of time comprised between 5 seconds and 6 minutes. This method allows effectively elimination or reduction of the roughness of the polyamide objects obtained by additive manufacturing or 3D printing techniques, for example, obtained by techniques such as the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) with a simple procedure which does not require neither high temperatures nor extended treatment times. The present invention also refers to the object obtainable according to such method.

Disclosed herein is an injection molding method for making optical thermoplastic lenses using 3D-printed functional wafers. The wafer and base lens are made of different materials having dissimilar glass transition temperatures.

Disclosed is a friction-reducing and anti-wear composite material for a wading kinematic pair and a method of preparing the same. The friction-reducing and anti-wear composite material is prepared from carbon fiber (CF) among inorganic fillers, polyimide (PI) and polyether ether ketone (PEEK). These three materials are wet-mixed, dried and placed in a mold followed by curing by a heat press. The cured product is cooled and demolded to obtain the CF/PI/PEEK friction-reducing and anti-wear composite material for a wading kinematic pair. Tribological properties of the PEEK material are enhanced due to synergistic effect arising from hybrid organic-inorganic filling. The friction-reducing and anti-wear composite material provided in the invention has significantly reduced friction coefficient and wear volume loss under the seawater environment.

Apparatus is described comprising a treatment chamber, a pump, a condenser and a secondary chamber. The treatment chamber comprises an interior into which an article to be treated can be disposed. The condenser, the pump and the secondary chamber are is in fluid communication with the treatment chamber in a closed loop to form a vapor extraction part of the apparatus. The apparatus may comprise a controller to control the operation of the apparatus automatically.

In various embodiments, a vapor condensation thermoplastic part finishing technique is provided that smooths and ensures color saturation of thermoplastic parts. The technique uses nonhazardous vapor condensation to rapidly heat a thermoplastic part to a temperature higher than its melting temperature. The part then may be cooled to a temperature lower than its melting temperature (and preferable lower than its glass-transition temperature. In some cases, evaporation may be employed to rapidly cool the part. Condensation and, where applicable evaporation, may be promoted by pressure changes to the nonhazardous vapor (e.g., increasing pressure to above atmospheric pressure and then decreasing pressure back to atmospheric pressure), exposure of the part to a separately-heated cloud of nonhazardous vapor (e.g., moving the part into and then out of the separately-heated cloud or injecting and then stopping injection of separately-heated vapor), or by other techniques.

According to the present invention, provided are a liquid crystal film for three-dimensional molding from which a three-dimensional molded body which is excellent in reproducibility of image light can be obtained during image light irradiation, a three-dimensional molded body, and a method of manufacturing the three-dimensional molded body. A liquid crystal film for three-dimensional molding includes: a substrate; and a functional layer, the functional layer includes a liquid crystal layer, the liquid crystal layer is made from a liquid crystal composition, and a rubbing haze variation of an outermost surface of the functional layer is 0.80% or less.

Example post-print processing of three dimensional (3D) printed objects are disclosed. An example system includes an energy source to apply energy to a selected portion of an outer surface of a 3D printed object. The energy provided by the energy source is to cause a polymer of the selected portion to melt and reflow. The selected portion and a non-selected portion of the outer surface to form a pattern on the outer surface of the 3D printed object. A controller to direct the energy of the energy source to the selected portion of the outer surface.