Methods for manufacturing articles of footwear are provided. In various aspects, the methods comprise utilizing additive manufacturing methods with foam particles. In some aspects, the disclosed methods comprise selectively depositing a binding material on foam particles in a target area such that the binding material coats at least a portion of defining surfaces of the foam particles with the binding material. The binding material is then cured to affix foam particles in the target area to one another. In various aspects, the disclosed methods can be used to manufacturer articles with sub-regions that differential levels of affixing between the foam particles, and thereby resulting in sub-regions with different properties such as density, resilience, and/or flexural modulus. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

A polymeric blend contains a polyether block amide and a thermoplastic polymer, where the polyether block amide is based on a subunit 1 and a subunit 2. Subunit 1 is composed of at least one linear aliphatic diamine containing 5 to 15 carbon atoms and at least one linear aliphatic dicarboxylic acid containing 6 to 16 carbon atoms. Subunit 2 is composed of at least one polyether diol containing at least 3 carbon atoms per ether oxygen and primary OH groups at the chain ends. The sum total of the carbon atoms from diamine and dicarboxylic acid is an odd number and is 19 or 21 carbon atoms. The number-average molar mass of the subunit 2 is 200 to 900 g/mol. The thermoplastic polymer is selected from an ethylene/vinylene acetate, a thermoplastic polyester elastomer, a polyolefin elastomer, thermoplastic polyurethane, or any mixture thereof.

Tooling and components of an injection-molding system may be used to mold a foam article. The tooling and components may include features that control parameters of the injection-molding and foaming process, such as temperature, pressure, shot size, shot placement, and the like.

Tooling and components of an injection-molding system may be used to mold a foam article. The tooling and components may include features that control parameters of the injection-molding and foaming process, such as temperature, pressure, shot size, shot placement, and the like.

The present disclosure provides a foam bead. The foam bead contains at least one of the following components: (A) a block composite; and/or (B) a crystalline block composite. The present disclosure also provides a sintered foam structure formed from a composition comprising at least one of the following components: (A) a block composite; and/or (B) a crystalline block composite.

A process for producing a flexible foam includes introducing a masterbatch material into an extruder, the masterbatch material consisting essentially of one or more thermoplastic polymers that are recycled, recyclable, biodegradable, and/or compostable, mixing an inert gas with the masterbatch material, extruding the masterbatch material through the extruder to form a polymer melt, passing the polymer melt through a die to form an extrudate, and allowing the extrudate to expand into a foam.

A manufacturing method of a polymer material at least includes the following steps. A raw material including polyethylene terephthalate is provided. An alcoholysis reaction is performed by using the raw material with aliphatic diols to form an intermediate product, wherein the intermediate product includes bis 2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate. A polymerization reaction is performed by using the intermediate product and polytetramethylene ether glycol to form a thermoplastic polyester elastomer.

Disclosed are a hydrogenated styrene/conjugated diolefin copolymer, a foaming material thereof, and application thereof. The copolymer contains a styrene structure unit and a hydrogenated conjugated diolefin structure unit; by taking the total content of the copolymer as a reference, the content of the styrene structure unit is 15-50 wt %, the content of 1,2-polymerization structure unit in the hydrogenated conjugated diolefin structure unit is 8-32%, the degree of randomness of the styrene structure unit in the hydrogenated conjugated diolefin structure unit is 30-80%, and the degree of hydrogenation of conjugated diolefin in the copolymer is 85-100%. The tensile strength at break of the hydrogenated styrene/conjugated diolefin copolymer is 30-60 MPa, the elongation at break is 300-600%, and the hardness (Shore A) is 70-98. Moreover, a foaming body having excellent performance including more than 60% rebound and less than 30% compression deformation can be manufactured by using a supercritical carbon dioxide foaming process.

This document discloses a process for manufacturing recyclable injection molded microcellular foams for use in, footwear components, seating components, protective gear components, and watersport accessories, The process includes the steps of providing a thermoplastic polymer which comprises at least one monomer derived from depolymerized postconsumer plastic, inserting a fluid into a barrel of a molding apparatus. The fluid is introduced under temperature and pressure conditions to produce a super critical fluid. The process further includes mixing the thermoplastic polymer and super critical fluid so as to create a single phase solution, and injecting the single phase solution into a mold of an injection molding machine under gas counter pressure. The process further includes foaming the single phase solution by controlling the head and temperature conditions within the mold.

A foamed article is made by infusing the article of thermoplastic elastomer with a supercritical fluid, then removing the article from the supercritical fluid and either (i) immersing the article in a heated fluid or (ii) irradiating the article with infrared or microwave radiation.