A mold for an ultra-thick walled U-shaped composite product with a deep cavity includes an upper mold cavity, a lower mold cavity, a slidable side-drawing insert, and an auxiliary mold clamping structure. The auxiliary mold clamping structure includes a first auxiliary mold clamping insert and a second auxiliary mold clamping insert. The first auxiliary mold clamping insert is fixed on the lower mold cavity, and the second auxiliary mold clamping insert is fixed on the slidable side-drawing insert. The slidable side-drawing insert is located on a side of an integral structure formed after the upper mold cavity is engaged with the lower mold cavity, and the slidable side-drawing insert longitudinally slides along the lower mold cavity. The ultra-thick walled U-shaped composite product is formed and located between the upper mold cavity, the lower mold cavity, and the slidable side-drawing insert.

An additive manufacturing machine and associated method for making a part layerwise by firstly using additive manufacture to make a mold to define a space for the layer, and secondly filling the space with a paste to make a layer of the part. The machine comprises a first mold forming station with inkjet nozzles to form the mold using standard 3D printing, and a second paste dispensing station distanced from the first station, with a dispensing die slot for dispensing paste into the space to form a layer. The machine operates on multiple parts simultaneously, each being conveyed along a path through the stations.

A method includes manufacturing a kernel that comprises a quantity of a phase-change material and heating the thermoplastic past a softening temperature thereof. This softening temperature is greater than the phase-change material's melting temperature. The method continues with pressing this heated thermoplastic onto a contact surface of the kernel and the thermoplastic to cool to below its softening temperature. As a result, the thermoplastic assumes a profile that depends, at least in part, on the contact surface's profile. The method continues with separating the kernel from the thermoplastic.

A method of forming a model of a porous structure includes three dimensionally printing a mold of the porous structure using a polycaprolactone mold material, filling the mold with a polymer mixture, and heating the filled mold at a temperature above a melting temperature of the mold material to cure the polymer mixture, where the cured polymer mixture forms the model of the porous structure.

This flexible mandrel for molding a composite material containing a thermosetting resin includes: a main body containing a first material; and a thermally conductive layer containing a second material having a higher thermal conductivity than the first material, the thermally conductive layer being formed so as to cover at least a portion of the main body. The thermally conductive layer extends from a contacting surface of the flexible mandrel, which comes into contact with the composite material during molding, to a non-contacting surface which does not come into contact with the composite material.

Methods of manufacturing a garment apparatus are provided. The garment apparatus can be, for example, a device, a panty, a boyshort, a short, a lingerie item, a barrier, a garment, an undergarment, a membrane, a prophylactic, and/or a system.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are drawn to additive manufacturing apparatus and methods. An exemplary additive manufacturing method may include forming a part using additive manufacturing. The method may also include bringing the part to a first temperature, measuring the part along at least three axes at the first temperature, bringing the part to a second temperature, different than the first temperature, and measuring the part along the at least three axes at the second temperature. The method may further include comparing the size of the part at the first and second temperatures to calculate a coefficient of thermal expansion, generating a tool path that compensates for the coefficient of thermal expansion, bringing the part to the first temperature, and trimming the part while the part is at the first temperature using the tool path.

Method for determining a manufacturing parameter for making an aligner with a desired aligner thickness using a thermoforming device operable for making the aligner by shaping a precursor aligner into the aligner using a mold representative of a dental archform, the method comprising: obtaining a 3D map associated with the dental archform; parsing the 3D map to determine a first property value and a second property value, the first property value being based on the 3D map and the second property value being derived from a 2D projection of the 3D map, and determining a thickness of the precursor aligner for obtaining the desired aligner thickness based on a ratio of the first property value and the second property value and a given value of an operating parameter of the thermoforming device; and sending instructions to the thermoforming device to make the desired aligner based on the determined operating parameter.

A method for producing a first mold element for a metal machining tool, wherein the first mold element is configured as a holding-down mechanism, for producing the first mold element, a main body made of plastics material is provided, wherein a surface of the main body is subdivided into a plurality of regions, on at least one region of the surface of the main body, at least one casting mold is arranged, wherein the at least one casting mold and the at least one region of the surface enclose at least one cavity, which forms a negative mold for a layer of plastics material to be applied, wherein plastics material is filled into the at least one cavity and cured, wherein the plastics material in the at least one region is connected to the surface of the main body and applied to it, forming the layer.

An example mandrel for processing a part is described including an inner core having a material with first thermal properties, and an outer layer surrounding the inner core. The outer layer includes a material with second thermal properties different than the first thermal properties to enable uniform pressure distribution within the mandrel. An example method for fabricating a composite part is described including placing a base composite layer into a cavity of a tooling surface, inserting a mandrel into the cavity, applying a skin to the mandrel and the base composite layer forming a package, enclosing the package in a vacuum bag and curing the base composite layer and the skin such that during curing a pressure due to thermal expansion of one of the inner core and the outer layer is distributed by the other, and removing the mandrel from the cavity of the tooling surface following the curing.