Components for articles of footwear and athletic equipment are provided including a foam. A variety of foams and foam components are provided. The articles include a composition having a foam structure, wherein the composition includes an ionomeric polymer and a plurality of cations, wherein the ionomeric copolymer is crosslinked by the cations. The crosslinks are ionic, so in some aspects the composition is free or essentially free of any covalent crosslinks between the ionomers. In particular, midsoles including the foams are provided for use in an article of footwear. Methods of making the compositions and foams are provided, as well as methods of making an article of footwear including one of the foam components. In some aspects, the foams and foam components can be made by injection molding or injection molding followed by compression molding.

A sole structure for articles of footwear and a method of manufacturing them comprising at least one polymeric foamed component expanded through supercritical fluid (SCF) expansion of a shaped pre-expanded polymeric material. The polymeric foamed component may include apertures situated and fashioned in the formation of the pre-expanded polymeric material to promote uniform expansion and optimal curing conditions during the SCF expansion process. At least one polymeric foamed component having one set of physical properties that may be bound to or assembled in conjunction with one or more sole components having the same or another set of physical properties.

Physical foaming a footwear component with a single-phase solution of a polymeric composition and a supercritical fluid is provided. The method include temperature conditioning a mold and then engaging the mold with a robot that conveys the mold to a press. At the press a gas counter pressure is applied to a cavity of the mold before injecting a single-phase solution of a polymeric composition and a supercritical fluid into the cavity of the mold. The process continues with releasing the gas counter pressure from the cavity of the mold and then removing the footwear component from the cavity of the mold. The parameters of the method are configured for the formation of the footwear component in an automated manner.

Useful thermoplastic polymer powders are formed by a method comprising: cooling a foam comprised of a thermoplastic foam below the brittleness temperature of the thermoplastic polymer, wherein the foam has an average strut dimension of 10 to 500 micrometers, and comminuting the cooled foam to form a thermoplastic polymer powder. The method allows for the efficient grinding of the thermoplastic polymer having improved morphology and desirable characteristics such as dry flow without flow aids.

In one instance a semicrystalline polyketone powder useful for additive manufacturing is comprised of a bimodal melt peak determined by an initial differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) scan at 20° C./min and a D.sub.90 particle size of at most 300 micrometers and average particle size of 1 micrometer to 150 micrometers equivalent spherical diameter. In another instance, A composition is comprised of a semicrystalline polyketone powder having a melt peak and a recrystallization peak, wherein the melt peak and recrystallization peak fail to overlap.

A method of microcellular foam molding an article is provided with, in one embodiment, filling a mold with a polyolefin compound; adding a crosslinking agent to the polyolefin compound to form a crosslinked mold; placing the crosslinked mold in a second mold having vent holes; placing the second mold in a pressure vessel; dissolving gas under high pressure to form a supercritical fluid (SCF) in the pressure vessel; effusing the SCF through the vent holes into the crosslinked mold to form a SCF permeated mold; releasing pressure of the pressure vessel to cause the SCF permeated mold to foam; and finishing a foamed article in the second mold.

A polylactic acid composition includes polylactic acid and a filler. An amount of the filler in the polylactic acid composition is 50% by mass or less, and the polylactic acid in the polylactic acid composition has a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 150,000 or more and a molecular weight distribution (Mn/Mw) of 1.5 or more but 2.0 or less.

The present disclosure provides a process. The process includes (i) forming a composition containing a peroxide-modified ethylene-based polymer selected from the group consisting of a peroxide-modified ethylene/a-olefin multi-block copolymer, a peroxide-modified low density polyethylene, and combinations thereof; (ii) contacting the composition with a blowing agent to form a foam composition; and (iii) forming foam beads comprising the foam composition. The present disclosure also provides a foam bead produced by said process.

Provided is a polyamide resin composition which is used for a foam molded body and has high appearance performance, high load resistance, and high impact resistance. This polyamide resin composition for foam molding contains: 40 to 70 parts by mass of a crystalline polyamide resin (A); 5 to 15 parts by mass of a non-crystalline polyamide resin (B); 15 to 50 parts by mass of an inorganic reinforcing material (C); 0.1 to 10 parts by mass of an elastomer (D); and 0.5 to 15 parts by mass of a copolymer (E) having a functional group that reacts with a terminal group of the polyamide resin. The total amount of the crystalline polyamide resin (A), the non-crystalline polyamide resin (B), the inorganic reinforcing material (C), the elastomer (D), and the copolymer (E) having a functional group that reacts with a terminal group of the polyamide resin is 100 parts by mass.

A novel method for producing an olefinic resin porous material with no skin layer is provided. The method for producing an olefinic resin porous material disclosed herein includes the steps of preparing a single phase in which an olefinic resin, a hydrocarbon compound, and a polar compound are mixed one another, in a pressure-resistant container, introducing high pressure carbon dioxide into the pressure-resistant container, and releasing the pressure in the pressure-resistant container. The polar compound has a hydroxy group or a carbonyl group. Introducing the high pressure carbon dioxide is carried out such that the pressure in the pressure-resistant container reaches 6 MPa or higher.