Abstract: The invention refers to a system (100) for assessing the quality of a physical product (111). A device (110) provides visual image data of the product and comprises a) a lighting setup comprising a lighting device (112) adapted for lighting the product and b) a camera (113) adapted for detecting light from the lighting device to generate visual image data of the product based on the detected light. An apparatus (120) assesses the quality of the product and comprises a) a providing unit (121) adapted to provide a trained machine learning based assessment model, wherein the model has been trained based on historical visual image data, and wherein the trained assessment model is adapted to determine a quality of the product, and b) an assessment unit (123) adapted to assess a quality of the product by applying the trained assessment model to the visual image data.

Abstract: A process for producing foam particles from expanded thermoplastic elastomer involves (a) mixing a thermoplastic elastomer melt with a blowing agent in an extruder; (b) pressing the thermoplastic elastomer melt mixed with the blowing agent through a die plate into a pelletizing chamber; and (c) comminuting the thermoplastic elastomer melt pressed through the die plate into individual pellets. A liquid flows through the pelletizing chamber, and the pressure and temperature of the liquid are chosen such that the pellets are expanded to a desired degree in the liquid by the blowing agent and solidify to form foam particles. Additionally, the liquid in the pelletizing chamber contains wax which accumulates on the surface of the pellet during the cutting and expansion in the pelletizing chamber; and/or after separation from the liquid and drying of the foam particles, a wax is applied to the foam particles of expanded thermoplastic elastomer.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing a thermoplastic polyurethane reacting at least one thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-1) or a polyurethane mixture comprising a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-1) with at least one compound (V1) comprising two hydroxyl groups to obtain a mixture (G-a) comprising a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-2) and the reaction of the mixture (G-a) with a mixture (G-b) comprising an isocyanate composition (ZI) comprising at least one diisocyanate and optionally and a polyol composition (ZP) comprising at least one polyol (P2) to obtain a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU target), wherein the proportion of the employed components (ZI) and (ZP) is matched to the hard segment content of the employed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-1), (V1) and the hard segment content of the thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU target).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing a thermoplastic polyurethane reacting at least one thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-1) or a polyurethane mixture comprising a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-1) with at least one compound (V1) comprising two hydroxyl groups to obtain a mixture (G-a) comprising a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-2) and the reaction of the mixture (G-a) with a mixture (G-b) comprising an isocyanate composition (ZI) comprising at least one diisocyanate and optionally and a polyol composition (ZP) comprising at least one polyol (P2) to obtain a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU target), wherein the proportion of the employed components (ZI) and (ZP) is matched to the hard segment content of the employed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-1), (V1) and the hard segment content of the thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU target).