Abstract: A method for making an article such as a chair seat or the like is disclosed with the method including: attaching a rigid insert to one-half of a mold with an air permeable material extending from between the rigid insert and the mold outward toward the edges of the first half of the mold; inserting a liquid foamable reaction mixture into the cavity of a second half of the mold, placing the two mold halves together with the air permeable material extending from the cavity of the mold to the exterior thereof; allowing the reaction mixture to cure and form a rigid hard structure throughout while expanding around the sides of the rigid insert; and removing the finished article from the mold.

Abstract: A procedure for refurbishing hollow metal buoys that have been surveyed out of service. The buoy repair method involves removing a metal section, filling the buoy interior with polyurethane foam, welding back the removed metal section and coating the metal exterior with fiber glass-resin composition. Buoys repaired in this manner are essentially maintenance free.

Abstract: An improved method of making syntatic modules is provided. The method includes the steps of forming a mold and adhering an expanded honeycomb material to the interior surface of the mold. The mold is then closed at one end and filled with hollow, plastic spheres from the other end. After the spheres are in place, a syntatic foam is pumped into the mold from the bottom, filling all spaces between the balls with the foam. The foam is then permitted to set after which the mold is removed, leaving the desired module. Thereafter, a skin may be applied to the module.

Abstract: Disclosure is made of a universally fitting electrical insulator for mounting between the armature shaft and the windings and laminations of an armature. The disclosure is also of a method for mounting the insulator in the armature. The insulator and method are particularly useful in the production of double insulated electrical hand tools.

Abstract: Disclosure is made of a novel sheath and the method of its use for protecting electrical conductors and connections. The sheath comprises a tubular body which defines an interior space. The space contains an expandable, synthetic, polymeric resin foam forming composition. The method of the invention comprises inserting an electrical conductor or connection into the sheath of the invention and activating the foam forming composition to foam and encapsulate the conductor or connection. The installed sheaths protect the conductors and/or connections from degradation by environmental conditions, are resilient and improve the insulative quality of the electrical connection.

Abstract: The apparatus includes a stationary hollow mandrel supported at one end, a pair of forming shoes over which strips of material are respectively pulled longitudinally of the mandrel to provide a cylindrical inner liner surrounding the mandrel and a cylindrical outer jacket surrounding the inner liner in spaced relationship thereto, a conduit having an outlet end portion disposed within the outer jacket above the inner liner, supply means for supplying foamable hardenable liquid material to an inlet end portion of the conduit, additional supply means for separately supplying a fast acting catalyst to the foamable material in the conduit, means for reciprocating the outlet end portion of the conduit transversely over the inner liner, conveyor-mold means confining the outer jacket as the foamable material foams and cures, rotatable tire means for pulling the insulation formed by the outer jacket, the cured foam, and the inner liner off the mandrel longitudinally thereof, a traveling saw for cutting the insulation

Abstract: Pencils made with a resin-based sheath to replace wood sheaths. A sheath material consisting essentially of a resin binder, a fibrous filler and a metallic soap is extruded around a marking core. The resulting extrudate is immediately chilled after leaving the die, and cut into pencil lengths. The apparatus includes core feeding and transport means, core preheating means and chilling means. The resulting pencils possess the physical qualities associated with wood-sheathed pencils due to the fine, closed cell structure of the sheath material. The surface of the sheath is smooth and may be coated with a pigmented resin or painted.

Abstract: A method of making a unitary structure, such as, a conveyor idler, having a heat-sensitive subassembly with at least one moving part therein, such as, a lifetime lubricated bearing structure, wherein the subassembly is preassembled, the preassembled subassembly is placed in a mold, and a plastic, having a sufficiently low temperature of formation to prevent damage to the heat-sensitive subassembly and, upon hardening, a sufficient compressive strength to hold the subassembly together and form a pressure resistant unitary body, such as, a hard polyurethane foam having a compressive strength of at least about 90 kp/mm.sup.2, is formed about the subassembly. A protective covering, such as, a plastic sleeve, resistant to abrasion, can also be placed in the mold and made to adhere to and surround the outside surface of the unitary plastic body during the formation of the unitary plastic body.

Abstract: A product comprising a cellular plastic material is extruded from a modified conventional extrusion head by injecting a gaseous expanding medium into advancing fluent plastic material through porous material forming at least a portion of a section of the core tube in an extrusion chamber. By controlling the interrelationship between various process parameters such as the speed and pressure of the advancing fluent plastic material, the rate of injection of expanding medium into the advancing plastic material, the place where the expanding medium is injected, and the amount the extruded product is allowed to expand before cooling, it is possible to extrude, from a single source of fluent plastic material, a product comprising many different configurations of cellular and solid plastic material such as a uniform cellular structure throughout, or a cellular plastic inner section with a more dense outer covering.

Abstract: Method of manufacturing composite heat-insulating material, by stacking to a desired thickness pieces of aluminum foil adhesively secured to foam-forming ceramic material, filling the volume to be occupied by said heat-insulating layer or a vessel with the resulting stack, and heating it to cause foaming of said ceramic material.

Abstract: A method for making a panel of plastic foam includes first coating a flexible ribbon on one side with foam and immediately thereafter while the foam is soft and flowable, laying the ribbon on a form with the foam coated side against the form. Length after length of the foam coated ribbon is laid on the form side by side in courses sufficiently close in order that the foam coating flow and cohere together on the form and thereafter the foam cures providing a panel of foam having the shape of the form.

Abstract: Apparatus for molding a composite styled wheel for use on automotive passenger vehicles and the like, a method of constructing such a wheel employing the molding apparatus and a method of constructing such molding apparatus, wherein a portion of the mold comprises a conventional metal vehicle wheel having a drop center rim secured to a central disc or body having the usual bolt circle holes and a central aperture so that the disc can be mounted on an axle, drum or disc brake assembly. The metal wheel is employed in conjunction with an upper back-up clamp and lower mold part to define therewith a sealed cavity for molding and attaching a three-dimensional contoured plastic overlay, the overlay thus being molded in situ and permanently attached to the outboard side of the wheel in the mold apparatus.

Abstract: For manipulating a length of non-rigid tubing into position around a swing joint (which includes a 90.degree. fitting) in an underground pipe, a rigid guide tube (through which the non-rigid tubing may be passed) is utilized. The lower end of this guide tube is landed in the 90.degree. fitting, and a wedging member or whipstock, manipulatable from the surface, is operated to hold this end of the guide tube solidly in position in the 90.degree. fitting. After the guide tube is thus secured, the non-rigid tubing is passed down through the guide tube and around the 90.degree. fitting into a laterally-extending pipe; then, a foam-forming composition is pumped through the non-rigid tubing into this latter pipe to form a foamed plug therein.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for repairing a buried main having connected lateral service conduits. In the method, a main is opened and cleaned of debris. Thereafter, an elongated conduit liner is axially inserted into a length of the buried main. The lateral service conduits are opened and cleaned from a point remote from their connection to the main. A dispenser is axially inserted through the service conduit to a point adjacent to the connection. At the connection, polyurethane material is dispensed into a portion of the service conduit and in the annular space between the main and the liner. Thereafter, the dispenser means is removed from the service conduit and the polyurethane material is allowed to set. A cutter apparatus is axially inserted into the service conduit and is manipulated to form a port through the polyurethane material and the wall of the liner to connect the service conduit to the liner.

Abstract: The present invention is related to a method for manufacturing a substantially planar and horizontal rigid structure constituted by building elements which are jointed to each other, comprising the steps of successively moulding said building elements from a rapidly polymerizing foamed plastic material; transferring successively said building elements, immediately after polymerization of said plastic material to a predetermined location in the structure to be obtained, so as place each one of said elements into a juxtaposition with respect to the previously transferred element, said transferring step being carried out preferably after a modification of at least a portion of the surface of said elements; and jointing to said predetermined location to the element which has previously been transferred.

Abstract: An extrudate element is inserted into a base material so that a portion of the extrudate enters into or traverses the base material. The inserted extrudate element, the constituent of the base material, or both are composed of an expandable extrudate containing an expansion agent. The expansion agent is activated during or after insertion of the extrudate element to cause enlargement of the expandable extrudate and/or the substrate or base. This enlargement fixes the extrudate element into the base material by tightening the inserted element against the base material to wedge it in place, as by causing portions of the inserted element to enter interstices of the base material, or by causing the inserted element to expand on both sides of the insertion opening to a diameter greater than that of the insertion opening. The insertion and subsequent fixing into a base material of a plurality of elements produces a pile surfaced article.

Abstract: A foamable synthetic plastic composition such as a polyurethane is foamed in place around a pipe within a tubular former disposed concentrically about the pipe while the former moves longitudinally along the pipe. Conditions are regulated to form an external skin on the foam. A hot melt glue or similar composition is applied as an outer sealer onto the foam within the tubular former. Preferably a spiral wrapping of polyethylene film or the like is applied while the sealer is still hot and adhesive, and an aluminum jacket may be applied on top of the spiral wrapping.

Abstract: A life buoy or similar article of manufacture (for example, one capable of being used as a construction element), including a doughnut-shaped hollow element, which optionally may be of flexible plastic and contain pressurized gas (optionally helium); but preferably it is a gas-filled toroidal tube of blown glass or metal, permanently sealed, and flanked and protected against shock by foamed plastic (or similar porous material), coated with waterproofing rubber or paint. This hollow element may be cylindrical, spherical or polygonal, but preferably it is doughnut-shaped. The foamed plastic may be limited to the exterior of the hollow element or also may be on its interior. At its center the article may have a cylindrical or toroidal hole; or optionally the foamed plastic may continuously bridge over the hollow element at the center of the article. Such foamed plastic bridging over the article's center in the form of FIG.

Abstract: The invention pertains to a process for the continuous production of thin polyurethane foam layers, in which a band-like supporting layer is moved longitudinally and locally guided so as to take a nearly cylindrical shape, the axis of which is horizontal and perpendicular to the general direction of the band motion, and a reacting mixture is projected on the supporting layer by means of a vertical, rotating projection disk, reciprocating along the axis of the said cylindrical shape.

Abstract: Method of preparing an insulated negative buoyancy conduit wherein a jacket is placed around the conduit and an insulating material comprising a porous filler and a resin-forming composition is positioned in the annulus between the jacket and the conduit.

Abstract: 1. A method for erecting a building structure comprising: inflating a form, .[.positioning thickness gauges within the inner surface of the form, said thickness guages being preformed from a plastic foam material,.]. spraying a .[.n additional quantity of the same.]. plastic foam material against the inside of the form to build up a .[.layer having a thickness determined by the thickness gauges which become integral with the.]. layer, .[.and.]. allowing the plastic foam to harden and become rigid and self-supporting .[...]. .Iadd.and coating the inside of the layer of foam with a layer of concrete..Iaddend.