Abstract: A high speed plastic-forming process forms a curved wall section with a compound radius along the outer edge of a sheet of plastic foam material. The process includes first die cutting the flat sheet material to a shape having an initial edge curvature, followed by securing the die cut piece to a carousel which passes the curved outer edge section of sheet material past heaters that controllably heat the top and bottom surfaces of the moving curved edge section. The carousel then passes the pre-heated edge section into contact with an elongated stationary curved forming shoe along the outer edge of the carousel to progressively bend the pre-heated section into a curved wall section of compound radius. The carousel then passes the formed wall section into contact with an elongated stationary curved cooling rail extending around most of the outer edge of the carousel downstream from the forming shoe.

Abstract: A method of making a packing seal comprising compression molding a thermo-setting plastic in a spiral mold so that a partially-cured spiral seal is formed, removing the partially-cured seal from the mold, and winding it on a mandrel of a selected diameter, curing the spiral seal on the mandrel, and removing the seal from the mandrel, whereby the resulting seal is resilient and can be used to seal any part having a diameter within a given range, which range has the diameter of the mandrel as a median.