A curative for epoxidized plant-based oils and epoxidized natural rubber is created from the reaction between a naturally occurring polyfunctional acid and an epoxidized plant-based oil is disclosed. The curative may be used to produce porosity-free castable resins and vulcanize rubber formulations based on epoxidized natural rubber. Materials made from disclosed materials may be advantageously used as leather substitutes.

Waterproof engineered floor and wall planks have a veneer layer bonded with a plastic composite core, and an underlayer, preferably an underlayer of cork.

Floor panel for forming a floor covering, where the floor panel includes a carrier on the basis of a thermoplastic material and a top layer provided on the carrier. The thermoplastic material is free from plasticizers or includes a plasticizer in an amount up to maximum 20 phr, where the thermoplastic material is foamed or expanded, and where the carrier is provided with a reinforcement layer.

A biodegradable insulating panel for a package includes a first layer of biodegradable material, a second layer of biodegradable material opposite the first layer, a moisture repellant layer, a biodegradable honeycomb core, and granulated pith. The moisture repellant layer is disposed on exterior surfaces of the first and second layers. The biodegradable honeycomb core is disposed between the first and second layers. The granulated pith is disposed within the honeycomb core to increase the resistance to heat flow of the panel. The biodegradable insulating panel has a density no greater than about 300 kg/m.sup.3. A biodegradable insulating package includes a plurality of insulating panels. The biodegradable insulating package is thermally insulating such that a temperature of an item disposed in the package increases no greater than 0.24° C./min (e.g., during ASTM D3103 test).

A method to produce a wear resistant foil, including providing a first foil including a first thermoplastic material, applying wear resistant particles on the first foil, applying a second foil including a second thermoplastic material on the first foil, and adhering the first foil and the second foil to each other to form a wear resistant foil.

An elastomeric bicomponent fiber, including at least one sheath and a core, with non-blocking properties and a garment-like feel is provided. The core includes an elastomer and a secondary amide, and the sheath includes a non-elastomeric polyethylene. Further, the sheath can be present as a small portion of the total elastomeric composition, and the secondary amide can be present as a small portion of the core, while forming a bicomponent fiber with non-blocking properties and a garment-like feel.

Floor panel for forming a floor covering, where the floor panel includes a carrier on the basis of a thermoplastic material and a top layer provided on the carrier. The thermoplastic material is free from plasticizers or includes a plasticizer in an amount up to maximum 20 phr, where the thermoplastic material is foamed or expanded, and where the carrier is provided with a reinforcement layer.

A curative for epoxidized plant-based oils and epoxidized natural rubber is created from the reaction between a naturally occurring polyfunctional acid and an epoxidized plant-based oil is disclosed. The curative may be used to produce at least one of six different materials, wherein each type of material may be configured as a thermosetting elastomer that is crosslinked with ß-hydroxyester linkages. The materials may be configured as a leather-like material, a foam material, a molded elastomer, a coating, an adhesive, and/or a rigid or semi-rigid material. Illustrative articles made from any combination of the six materials may be recycled using a mechano-chemical process to de-crosslink the thermosetting elastomer.

A novel tubular or profile shapes of co-extruded multilayer polymers. These materials contain tens to thousands of layers of milli-, micro- to nano-polymer layers. These new shapes contain contiguous layers of milli- to nano-polymer layers in three dimensions and these contiguous layers may be twisted or turned to further expand the potential microlayer geometries.

The present invention aims to provide an adhesive composition having excellent adhesive property and excellent anti-fogging property by way of simple and easy means such as co-extrusion with a substrate film, extrusion coating, solvent coating, etc. According to the present invention, there is provided an adhesive composition, characterized in that it contains a polyester resin (A) and an anti-fogging agent (C), and satisfies the following requirement (1): (1) Glass transition temperature of the polyester resin (A) is from −30 to 30° C.