Provided are methods for surface-modifying a tubular object of a rubber vulcanizate or a thermoplastic elastomer. The methods allow these objects to have at least a lubricating inner surface layer chemically fixed thereon, instead of having a resin coating which has drawbacks such as reduction in lubricity due to e.g. separation or peeling of the coating during movement within a vessel or tract. Included is a method for surface-modifying a tubular object made of a rubber vulcanizate or a thermoplastic elastomer whose side wall may have an opening, the method including: step 1 of forming polymerization initiation points on at least the outer surface of the object; and step 2 of irradiating the outer surface of the object with ultraviolet light of 300-400 nm to radically polymerize a monomer using radicals generated from the polymerization initiation points to grow polymer chains on at least the inner surface of the object.

The present invention relates to an extruded expanded thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer bead and a preparation method therefor. The bead consists of components of the following parts by weight: 100 parts by weight of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, 0.01-0.5 parts of a foaming nucleating agent, and 0.01-0.2 parts by weight of an antioxidant. The preparation method comprises: mixing materials, then putting the mixture into an extruder for granulation to produce a particle raw material suitable for foaming, finally, putting the particle into a foam extruder, and die foaming then underwater pelletizing, thus obtaining a product bead. The present invention utilizes an extrusion method to prepare expanded thermoplastic polyurethane beads. Control of the working conditions of the foaming process could lead to acquiring an expanded=bead of a controllable density, the cell density evenly distribute. The overall production process is easy to operate. Without any special limit or requirement placed on the equipment, this method is suitable for industrial continuous production.

A reinforced product, which can be used especially for reinforcing a finished rubber article, comprises one or more textile or metallic reinforcing thread(s), said thread(s) being covered with a sheath comprising a thermoplastic polymer composition, the sheathed thread(s) being themselves embedded in a rubber composition referred to as coating rubber, characterized in that this coating rubber is a composition based on at least one diene elastomer, silica as predominant reinforcing filler, and a sulfur-based vulcanization system, in which the ratio of the amounts, in phr (parts by weight per hundred parts by weight of elastomer), of sulfur and of reinforcing filler, is less than 0.08.

Provided herein are compositions including a blend of a propylene-based elastomer, a propylene polymer, and a foaming agent.

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 additive manufacturing methods comprise increasing the temperature of a plurality of foam particles with actinic radiation under conditions effective to fuse a portion of the plurality of foam particles comprising one or more thermoplastic elastomers. Increasing the temperature of the foam particles can be carried out for one or multiple iterations. The disclosed methods can be used to manufacturer articles with sub-regions that exhibit differing degrees of fusion between the foam particles, 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 device (e.g., an article of athletic gear) comprising a post-molded expandable component, which is a part of the device that is configured to be expanded or has been expanded after being molded. This may allow the post-molded expandable component to have enhanced characteristics (e.g., be more shock-absorbent, lighter, etc.), to be cost-effectively manufactured (e.g., by using less material and/or making it in various sizes), and/or to be customized for a user (e.g., by custom-fitting it to the user).

The present subject matter relates to self-healing keyboards. In an example implementation, a self-healing keyboard of an electronic device comprises a self-healing film having a self-healing layer disposed over a keyboard. The self-healing layer is composed of polyurethane, epoxy vinyl ester, epoxy, polyurethane microcapsules filled with silane compound, and a polysiloxane mixture.

A modified expanded bead that includes an expanded bead which includes a specific base polymer (β) and a coating layer which includes a specific base polymer (α). The coating layer covers at least part of an outer surface of the expanded bead. The melting point Tα of the base polymer (α) and the melting point Tβ of the base polymer (β) satisfy a relationship of 0≤Tα−Tβ≤20. When the modified expanded bead is cut into two halves along a cutting plane to form two half portions and thereafter one of the two half portions is cut along planes perpendicular to the cutting plane to form ten small pieces, outermost pieces among the ten small pieces have a xylene-insoluble content (B) which is less than a xylene-insoluble content (A) in the half portion and the xylene-insoluble content (A) is 10-80% by mass.

A self-modelling padding for garments or supports which has an elastomeric matrix having a cross-linked, three-dimensional open cell structure, and a self-modelling paste embedded in the elastomeric matrix is provided. The elastomeric matrix is configured to have a shape memory. The self-modelling paste has a plastic behavior.

Provided is a shoe sole member including a crosslinked foam forming a part or the whole of the shoe sole member, wherein the crosslinked foam is formed by a polymer composition showing specific results in measurement using pulsed NMR.