Provided are resin particles including columnar resin particles each including filaments of a fibrous material, wherein the filaments of the fibrous material are aligned in an axial direction of each of the columnar resin particles.

A method for forming a thermoplastic body having regions with varied material composition and/or porosity. Powder blends comprising a thermoplastic polymer, a sacrificial porogen and an inorganic reinforcement or filler are molded to form complementary parts with closely toleranced mating surfaces. The parts are formed discretely, assembled and compression molded to provide a unitary article that is free from discernible boundaries between the assembled parts. Each part in the assembly has differences in composition and/or porosity, and the assembly has accurate physical features throughout the sections of the formed article, without distortion and nonuniformities caused by variable compaction and densification rates in methods that involve compression molding powder blends in a single step.

A polyetheretherketone pipe of length greater than 250 meters and a residual stress of less than 5 MPa may be made using a calibrator device 2 which includes a cone shaped opening 6 arranged to receive a molten extruded pipe shaped polymer. Attached to the front member 4 is a vacuum plate 14a and successive vacuum plates 14b-14h are attached to one another to define an array of vacuum plates, the vacuum plates being arranged to allow a vacuum to be applied to a pipe precursor passing through opening 16. The vacuum plates 14 also include temperature control means for heating or cooling the plates and therefore heating or cooling a pipe precursor passing through the openings. With a vacuum applied to opening 6, 16 and heating/cooling the plates, an extruded hot plastics pipe is inserted into calibrator 2 via opening 6 and conveyed through opening 16 in plates 14, whereupon it is urged by the vacuum against the cylindrical surface defined by plates 14 to maintain its shape and the temperature of each plate is controlled to control the rate of cooling of the pipe precursor passing through. The pipe may be cooled at a relatively slow rate so that a pipe made from a relatively fast crystallising polymer crystalises and the crystallinity of the pipe along its extent and throughout its thickness is substantially constant.

A graphene-reinforced polymer matrix composite comprising an essentially uniform distribution in a thermoplastic polymer of about 10% to about 50% of total composite weight of particles selected from graphite microp articles, single-layer graphene nanoparticles, multilayer graphene nanoparticles, and combinations thereof, where at least 50 wt % of the particles consist of single- and/or multi-layer graphene nanoparticles less than 50 nanometers thick along a c-axis direction. The graphene-reinforced polymer matrix is prepared by a method comprising (a) distributing graphite microparticles into a molten thermoplastic polymer phase comprising one or more matrix polymers; and (b) applying a succession of shear strain events to the molten polymer phase so that the matrix polymers exfoliate the graphite successively with each event until at least 50% of the graphite is exfoliated to form a distribution in the molten polymer phase of single- and multi-layer graphene nanoparticles less than 50 nanometers thick along a c-axis direction.

A textile product and a method of manufacturing a composite object therefrom includes interacting a granular material with a textile material, with the textile material impregnated with the elements of the granular material forming a textile product, and introducing the textile product into a molding process so as to form the composite object therefrom. The granular material includes elements including a matrix material having a plurality of reinforcing fibers received therein, the elements of the granular material having a melt viscosity of between about 5 and about 15 grams per 10 minutes and a particle size distribution with a range in particle size of between about 50 and about 595 micrometers.

Process for producing polyarylene ether beads from a polyarylene ether solution, comprising the steps of i) dividing the polyarylene ether solution into droplets, ii) transferring the droplets into a precipitation bath to form polyarylene ether beads in the precipitation bath which (A) comprises at least one aprotic solvent (component (1)) and at least one protic solvent (component (2)), (B) has a temperature of 0° C. to T.sub.c, where the critical temperature T.sub.c in [° C.] can be determined by the numerical equation T.sub.c=(99−c)/0.61 in which c is the concentration of component (1) in the precipitation bath in [% by weight] and (C) has component (1) in concentrations of 5% by weight to c.sub.c, where the critical concentration c.sub.c in [% by weight] can be determined by the numerical equation c.sub.c=99−0.61*T in which T is the temperature in the precipitation bath in [° C.], where
the percentages by weight are each based on the sum of the percentages by weight of component (1) and of component (2) in the precipitation bath.

The present invention provides a gel comprising a physical network formed of polymer chain crystallites interconnected by amorphous chain segments. Functionalization of the chain segments between the crystallites forms a blocky distribution of functionality along the chain whereby the functionalities are concentrated in groups consisting of one or more functionalities, separated by non-functionalized runs of crystallizable segments of the polymer. Removal of the solvent from the gels, without reducing the gel volume, forms an aerogel.

The present disclosure relates to an additive manufacturing (AM) method for making a three-dimensional (3D) object, comprising a) depositing successive layers of a powdered material (M), at least partially recycled, comprising at least one poly(ether ketone ketone) (PEKK), having a phosphorus content of more than 30 ppm, as measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), and b) selectively sintering each layer prior to deposition of the subsequent layer.

A method for forming a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite by distributing carbon fibers or nanotubes into a molten polymer phase comprising one or more molten polymers; and applying a succession of shear strain events to the molten polymer phase so that the molten polymer phase breaks the carbon fibers successively with each event, producing reactive edges on the broken carbon fibers that react with and cross-link the one or more polymers. The composite shows improvements in mechanical properties, such as stiffness, strength and impact energy absorption.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing, by a method in which an expensive manufacturing apparatus is not required, an implant material having osteoconductivity superior to that of an implant material containing an aromatic polyether ketone. The present invention pertains to: said method including immersing an aromatic polyether ketone in a strong base solution in the absence of a calcium ion, and immersing an aromatic polyether ketone, which is obtained by the immersing, in a liquid containing a phosphorus-containing compound; and an implant material obtained by said method.