A yarn or thread may include a plurality of substantially aligned filaments, with at least ninety-five percent of a material of the filaments being a thermoplastic polymer material. Various woven textiles and knitted textiles may be formed from the yarn or thread. The woven textiles or knitted textiles may be thermal bonded to other elements to form seams. A strand that is at least partially formed from a thermoplastic polymer material may extend through the seam, and the strand may be thermal bonded at the seam. The woven textiles or knitted textiles may be shaped or molded, incorporated into products, and recycled to form other products.

A low mass staking module includes a punch having a cavity on a first side, a contact surface on the second side opposite the first side, and a circular flange extending about an outer edge thereof, the punch formed of a thermally-conductive material, an annular housing engaged with the punch about the circular flange at a first end, and a heating element located inside the annular housing. The heating element has an output side in contact with the contact surface of the punch, the contact surface having a shape conforming to a shape of the output side of the heating element. The punch is desirably a low thermal mass punch, while the heating element may be a high power (watt) density, solid state, ceramic, resistant heating element (e.g., aluminum nitride or boron nitride heaters).

The present disclosure relates to methods and apparatuses for mechanically bonding substrates together. The apparatuses may include a pattern roll including a pattern element protruding radially outward. The pattern element includes a pattern surface and includes one or more channels adjacent the pattern surface. The pattern roll may be positioned adjacent an anvil roll to define a nip between the pattern surface and the anvil roll, wherein the pattern roll is biased toward the anvil roll to define a nip pressure between pattern surface and the anvil roll. As substrates advance between the pattern roll and anvil roll, the substrates are compressed between the anvil roll and the pattern surface to form a discrete bond region between the first and second substrates. As such, during the bonding process, some yielded substrate material flows from under the pattern surface and into the channel to form a channel grommet region.

A pouch case sealing apparatus for sealing a pouch case that includes a pouch body for accommodating an electrode assembly of a battery cell and a pouch terrace extending from the pouch body is provided. The pouch case sealing apparatus includes: a pair of sealing jigs, each sealing jig having a pressing surface, the pair of sealing jigs being configured to press and thermally fuse the pouch terrace from upper and lower directions of the pouch terrace so that the pouch case is sealed; and a pair of terrace anti-protruding units formed at respective pressing surfaces of the pair of sealing jigs to prevent an end portion of the pouch terrace from protruding beyond the pouch body in a horizontal direction of the pouch body when the pouch terrace is pressed and thermally fused. A method for sealing a pouch case is also provided.

The present disclosure provides a process. In an embodiment, the process includes A. providing a fitment with a base, the base comprising an ethylene/-olefin multi-block copolymer; B. placing the base between two opposing multilayer films, each multilayer film having a respective seal layer comprising an olefin-based polymer; C. flat sealing the base to each multilayer film with opposing heated flat seal bars, the flat sealing forming opposing seal joints at the flattened base ends; and D. point sealing the opposing seal joints with opposing curved seal bars.

An apparatus and method for joining pipes includes a plate for melting mating surfaces of the pipes to be joined. Additionally, the apparatus utilizes a vacuum in order to push the first and second pipes together in lieu of hand or mechanical pressure which may be inconsistent. Additionally, the vacuum allows the pipes to be joined to settle on each other in order to create a pressure about a periphery of the end of the pipe being joined to the other pipe. The consistent pressure creates a very strong joint between the first and second pipes.

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a tampon packaging where the packaging is manufactured separately from the tampon. A first transversal end is overlapped with a second transversal end of a strip of heat-sealable film. The first transversal end is heat sealed to the second transversal end of the heat-sealable film, thereby forming a tube of film.

An ultrasonic processing system (1) which comprises an ultrasonic vibrator (10) having an ultrasonic sonotrode (30) and a working surface (31) for ultrasonic processing of a workpiece. The vibrator (10) comprises a longitudinal axis (L), an enclosed cavity (32, 51) extends along the longitudinal axis at least in the sonotrode (30), a medium inlet (52) through which a cooling medium is fed into the cavity (32, 51), at least one vortex generator (53) which arranged between the medium inlet (52) and the cavity (32, 51) such that a swirl motion of the medium is generated inside the cavity (32, 51) around the longitudinal axis. A cooling channel (34) is fluidly connected to the enclosed cavity (32, 51) to guide the medium in the vicinity of the working surface (31) such that the working surface (31) is cooled. A first medium outlet (33) is fluidly connected to the cooling channel (34).

Composite fasteners, associated blanks and also methods and apparatus for the installation of such fasteners are disclosed. An exemplary composite rivet (10) disclosed comprises an elongated body including braided reinforcement fibers (14) embedded inside the body and supported in a matrix material (16). Also disclosed are structural assemblies comprising composite fasteners and panels or other parts comprising composite and/or other materials.

A flexible container is provided. The flexible container includes four panels. The four panels form (i) a body portion; (ii) a neck portion, and a flare portion that extends from the neck portion; (iii) a tapered transition portion between the body portion and the neck portion; and (iv) the neck portion has a reduced width. The flare portion has an expanded end. The width of the flare portion gradually increases from the neck portion to the expanded end.