A ram extrusion apparatus including a die having several thermal zones, a hopper for introducing a granular polymer resin to the die, and a ram for moving the granular polymer resin through the thermal zones of the die and out from an outlet end thereof at a temperature above the crystalline melt temperature of the polymer resin. The hopper may be designed to deliver the polymer resin into a resin inlet of the die in a plurality of specifically metered amounts which may vary across a width of the resin inlet end of the die. The apparatus may further include one or more finishing tables positioned after the outlet end of the die for receiving and moving the extruded resin away from the outlet end of the die so that there is no backpressure on the extruded resin, and which provide compression force and even cooling to the extruded resin.

A barrel for use in an additive manufacturing machine is disclosed. The barrel includes a sleeve extending along a longitudinal axis. A conduit extends along the longitudinal axis through the sleeve. The conduit is movable relative to the sleeve along the longitudinal axis between a first position and a second position. A nozzle is associated with the conduit. The nozzle is movable with the conduit relative to the sleeve between the first position and the second position.

Apparatus and methods for manufacturing compostable, biodegradable drink straws from polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) material are disclosed herein. Such apparatus may include a hopper that contains raw PHA material, an extruder that receives the raw PHA material from the hopper and produces extruded PHA material, one or more waters baths that cool the extruded PHA material, a puller that pulls a tubular stream of PHA material through the system, and a cutter that is configured to cut the stream of PHA material into finished straws. The finished straws may be soil- and marine-biodegradable, as well as home- and industrial-compostable.

A consumable material for use in an extrusion-based digital manufacturing system, the consumable material comprising a length and a cross-sectional profile of at least a portion of the length that is axially asymmetric. The cross-sectional profile is configured to provide a response time with a non-cylindrical liquefier of the extrusion-based digital manufacturing system that is faster than a response time achievable with a cylindrical filament in a cylindrical liquefier for a same thermally limited, maximum volumetric flow rate.

Polyester polymer particle spheroids comprising a polyester polymer including: a carboxylic acid component containing at least 90 mole % of the residues of terephthalic acid, derivates of terephthalic acid, naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid, and/or derivatives of naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid, and a hydroxyl component containing from 90 to 96 mole % of the residues of ethylene glycol, based on 100 mole percent of the carboxylic acid component residues and 100 mole percent hydroxyl component residues in the polyester polymer, wherein said particle has an It.V. of at least 0.72 dL/g, and the It.V. at the surface of the particle is from 0.02 dL/g to less than 0.25 dL/g higher than the It.V. at the center of the particle, and wherein the polyester polymer spheroids are not solid state polymerized.

Three-dimensional printer fabrication is improved by receiving a digital model of an object specifying two or more different build materials, prioritizing the different build materials with a ranking, identifying exclusive locations where a surface layer of the object has one of the build materials, generating an external structure for the object according to one or more design rules, matching a first build material of the external structure to a second build material of the object at each of the exclusive locations, the matching based on at least one shared property of the materials, generating tool instructions for fabricating the object and the external structure, the tool instructions including one or more selections between the first build material and the second build material based upon the ranking and the matching, and controlling the three-dimensional printer according to the tool instructions to fabricate the object and the external structure.

Disclosed are multilayer films which can provide desired low-temperature bag drop performance suited for laminate freezer film packaging.

A method and a device are for controlling a temperature of a barrel of a Thixomolding machine. The method includes acquiring a first barrel temperature of the Thixomolding machine, delaying, by the Thixomolding machine, an injection operation when the first barrel temperature is in a preset temperature range, recording a first parameter that indicates consumption of magnesium material in the first barrel of the Thixomolding machine, and increasing the first barrel temperature according to a set rule when the first parameter reaches a first threshold. A Thixomolding machine includes a barrel and is configured to control a temperature of the barrel according to the method.

A tube for a peristaltic pump comprises an elastically deformable tubular body (2) made from a PVC composition containing: 100 phr of a PVC resin having a K value, measured according to standard ISO 1628-2, of not less than 85, from 40 to 100 phr of DEHA plasticizer, from 0.05 to 1.0 phr of lubricant, from 0.3 to 15.0 phr of stabilizer and co-stabilizer. The deformable tube, which is usefully employed for liquid transport in a dialysis apparatus, enables a high level of fluid transport efficiency to be maintained, even after many hours of peristaltic pump operation.

A system for depositing a composite filler material into a channel of a composite structure includes an end-effector configured to extrude a bead of the filler material into the channel. The filler material can comprise a first group of relatively long fibers, a second group of relatively short fibers and a resin. A drive system is configured to move the end-effector relative to the channel, and a position sensor is configured to detect the position of the bead relative to the channel. A controller is configured to operate the drive system in response to the detected position and to operate the end-effector to heat and compress the filler material so as to orient the longer fibers in a substantially longitudinal direction relative to the channel and the shorter fibers in substantially random directions relative to the channel when the bead is extruded into the channel.