Amide-based elastomer expanded particles comprising, as a base resin, a non-crosslinked amide-based elastomer having a Shore D hardness of 65 or less, and having an average cell diameter of 20 to 250 μm.

Brominated vinylaromatic-diene block copolymers (Br-SBC) comprising a vinylaromatic polymer block S and a brominated diene polymer block BB, wherein before bromination the weight-average molar mass M.sub.w of the block S is greater than or equal to M.sub.w of the block BB, use thereof as flame retardants, and also polymer compositions comprising these for unfoamed and foamed thermoplastic polymers, for example EPS and XPS.

An object of the present invention is to provide a resin composition that can produce a foam molded body having a beautiful appearance while exhibiting excellent mechanical properties. The above object is achieved by a resin composition for producing foam particles, the resin composition comprising a base resin containing a polycarbonate resin having a glass transition temperature of 140 to 155° C. and an amorphous polyester resin having a glass transition temperature of 100 to 130° C., and the amorphous polyester containing a unit derived from a cyclic diol.

The present disclosure is directed to provide polyamide-based resin pre-expanded particles which can serve as a raw material of a polyamide-based resin foam shaped product having an excellent mechanical strength. Polyamide-based resin pre-expanded particles of the present disclosure contain a polyamide-based resin. The polyamide-based resin pre-expanded particles have an expansion ratio of 1.0 or more, wherein the expansion ratio is a ratio (ρ1/ρ2) of a density ρ1 (g/cm.sup.3) to a density ρ2 (g/cm.sup.3) after being pressurized with air at 0.9 MPa and then heated for 30 seconds with saturated steam at a temperature higher than a thermal fusion temperature by 5° C.

Since most elastomer foam molded bodies use a petroleum-derived resin as a base resin, there is a demand for an elastomer foam molded body with high rebound resilience and low environmental load. An object of the present invention is to provide a foam molded body having a rebound resilience coefficient equivalent to that of a petroleum-derived polyamide-based elastomer foam molded body, and excellent moldability during in-mold foaming; foam particles; and a method for producing the foam molded body.

The present invention relates to a polyamide-based elastomer foam molded body comprising 50 to 100 mass % of a block copolymer resin containing a polyamide block as a hard segment and a polyether block as a soft segment, wherein the copolymer resin has a biobased product content as measured by ASTM D6866 of 30% or more.

The present invention relates to thermally expandable microspheres at least partially prepared from bio-based monomers and to a process of their manufacture. The microspheres comprise a thermoplastic polymer shell encapsulating a blowing agent, wherein the thermoplastic polymer shell comprises a polymer being a homo- or copolymer of a lactone according to formula (1): ##STR00001##
wherein each of R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4, separately from one another, is selected from the group consisting of H and an alkyl group preferably with 1-4 carbon atoms. The invention further provides expanded microspheres, which can be used in a variety of applications.

Expandable polystyrene-based resin particles may include a styrene-based monomer, a polysiloxane-containing macro monomer, and a coating composition having a melting point of 40° C. or greater. A coefficient of static friction of a foamed molded product, obtained by pre-expanding the expandable polystyrene-based resin particles and molding the pre-expanded expandable polystyrene-based resin particles, may be 4.0 or less. The expandable polystyrene-based resin particles may have a surface layer part that contains polysiloxane as a main component.

A method of recycling a large amount of insole scrap stack is proposed. The method includes forming a plate-shaped stack made of flat-plate-shaped foam and woven fabric, separating an insole scrap stack from the plate-shaped stack, and forming a pulverized insole scrap having an average diameter of 0.05 to 0.7 mm by cool-pulverizing or freeze-pulverizing the insole scrap stack at 10° C. or less. The pulverized insole scrap may be used for manufacturing foam.

The present invention provides expanded beads comprising a crosslinked multi-block copolymer containing an ethylene block and an ethylene-α-olefin copolymer block, having an apparent density of 40 to 300 g/L, a gel fraction of 30 to 70% by weight by a hot xylene extraction method, an average cell diameter (a) of 50 to 180 μm, and an average surface layer thickness (b) of 3 to 27 μm, and the expanded beads are excellent in in-mold moldability, and can produce an expanded beads molded article being excellent in tensile characteristics in a well balanced manner.

A method of forming a skin-foam-substrate type structure particular suitable as an automobile trim component. The method comprises supplying a polymer resin containing a chemical foaming agent and including metal particles capable of inductive heating, that is positioned between a polymeric skin and substrate, followed by inductive heating to cause foaming of the polymeric resin. The foamed polymer resin adheres to the skin and substrate.