Touch fastener products, as well as apparatus and methods for manufacturing such products, are described. The methods and apparatus feature certain mold cavity shapes that are designed to facilitate demolding of hammer hook touch fastener elements exhibiting desirable fastening properties. Such mold cavity shapes can be combined with particularly soft molding resins to produce useful fastening products.

Sheet having fastening elements, comprising a base strip made of thermoplastic material and at least one element made from the strip, the element consisting of a stem extending in a transverse, in particular vertical, direction to the plane of the base strip, and having a cross section which is substantially uniform or decreases from the base strip towards the apex of the stem, in particular as far as the apex of the stem, and a part forming a head which protrudes laterally from the apex of the stem.

Mold-in fastener products are made by forming a longitudinally continuous hook tape having a flexible base and an array of discrete male touch fastener elements extending from an upper surface of the base, forming a layer of flexible barrier material on the upper surface of the base, such that the male touch fastener elements are embedded in the layer of flexible barrier material, severing the flexible barrier material to form a pattern of patches of flexible barrier material spaced apart and surrounded by a continuous lattice of barrier material, stripping the lattice from the upper surface of the base to expose regions of the base between patches, and severing the hook tape along the exposed regions of the base to form individual mold-in fastener products, each having a patch of flexible barrier material surrounded by an exposed base edge region carrying male touch fastener elements.

A molding apparatus (10) for forming a retaining device. The molding apparatus (10) comprises a molding strip (12) and a molding support (24). The molding strip (12) has an inside face (14), an outside face (16), and a plurality of through cavities (18) extending from the outside face (16) to the inside face (14), the molding strip (12) extending in a longitudinal direction (X) and presenting both a transverse direction (Y) perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (X), and also a height direction (Z) perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (X) and to the transverse direction (Y). The inside face (14) is configured to press against a molding face (26) of the molding support (24), wherein the inside face (14) of the molding strip (12) and/or the molding face (26) of the molding support (24) includes an array of passages, the array of passages forming vents and connecting together the cavities (18) when the molding strip (12) is pressed against the molding support (24).

A thermoforming system and related methods for manufacturing thermoplastic parts, such as interior panels for aircraft, may include a roll-to-roll operation and a forming press having at least one selectively rotatable tool. The rotatable tool, which may include a mold and/or a die, may be multifaceted, such that different faces of the tool have different mold arrangements for different forming characteristics.

A linear Fresnel lens sheet includes: a lens layer having a first surface in which a linear Fresnel lens portion, having a number of lens surfaces arranged in a first direction d1, is formed, and a second surface opposite the first surface; and a diffusion layer disposed on the side of the second surface of the lens layer.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods for making large areas of high aspect ratio micro or nanostructured foil using existing extrusion coating equipment. A method is disclosed for producing a high aspect ratio micro- or nanostructured thermoplastic polymer foil, or a nanostructured thermoplastic polymer coating on a carrier foil, comprising at least one high aspect ratio nanostructured surface area. The method comprises applying a high aspect ratio nanostructured surface on an extrusion coating roller and maintaining the temperature of the roller below the solidification temperature of the thermoplastic material. A thermoplastic foil and a thermoplastic coating made by the method is also disclosed.

A touch fastener strip includes a sheet-form material substrate having a front face, an array of fastener elements integrally molded with a resin base layer on the front face of the substrate and an array of discrete regions of resin (e.g., gripping elements) integrally molded with a resin base layer through apertures in the sheet-form material on the back face of the substrate. The array of fastener elements forms a discrete band of fastener elements extending longitudinally along the front face of the fastener strip, and the array of gripping elements forms a discrete band of gripping elements extending longitudinally along the back face of the fastener strip.

A calendering and stretching plant for producing a stretched mono-material polymer film, including a flat extrusion head placed upstream of a calender, and a stretching unit placed downstream of the calender. The calender includes at least a pair of calendering rollers, including a first calendering roller, or casting roller, and a second calendering roller. or pressing roller. The flat extrusion head is placed at an operating distance X from the calender of between 100 mm and 1000 mm with reference thicknesses of between 500 micron and 50 microns. The greater the thickness, the smaller is the distance X and vice-versa. The casting roller and the pressing roller are provided with a controlled cooling/heating system.

A calendering apparatus is provided for the mechanical compacting of an electrode, in particular of a flat form. The calendering apparatus includes a compacting device and a guide roller. The guide roller is configured to feed the electrode to the compacting device during the operation of the calendering apparatus. The guide roller has first regions and second regions in certain parts of its rolling surface, and the first and second regions have different thermal conductivities.