Foam and method of forming foam
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsTo-Chun Lin, Hsiang-Wei Huang, Jian-Cing Jhou, Ying-Che Lai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for making a foam component is provided and includes inserting a foam material into a cavity of a mold having a top plate and a bottom plate, heating the foam material to cause the foam material to expand, and moving one of the top plate and the bottom plate relative to the other of the top plate and the bottom plate as the foam material expands and contacts the one of the top plate and the bottom plate to cause the foam material to fold over on itself within the cavity.
Claims20
A method for making a foam component, the method comprising:
- inserting a foam material into a cavity of a mold having a top plate and a bottom plate, the cavity including a Z-axis defined between the top plate and the bottom plate;
- heating the foam material to cause the foam material to expand along a direction of the Z-axis at a first rate;
- and
- moving one of the top plate and the bottom plate relative to the other of the top plate and the bottom plate along the direction of the Z-axis at a second rate that is less than the first rate as the foam material expands and contacts the one of the top plate and the bottom plate to cause (i) the foam material to skin and (ii) a plurality of irregular folds to form in the skin of the foam material within the cavity and form a formed component.
A method for making a foam component, the method comprising:
- inserting a foam material into a cavity of a mold having a top plate and a bottom plate, the cavity including a Z-axis defined between the top plate and the bottom plate;
- heating the foam material to cause the foam material to expand along a direction of the Z-axis;
- during heating, moving one of the top plate and the bottom plate along the direction of the Z-axis at a restricted rate relative to the other of the top plate and the bottom plate as the foam material expands to form a skin having a plurality of folds;
- and
- curing the foam material to define a formed component including the plurality of folds in the skin of the formed component, the plurality of folds being substantially non-uniform relative to one another.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.