Process for making products of multi-gradient foamed polymeric material

A process for manufacturing a product made of multi-gradient foamed polymeric material, comprising:

• (i) generating, via software, a virtual model of a product to be manufactured in a solid foamable polymeric material;
• (ii) assigning at least one of constraints and loads dictated by use and performing a topological optimization via software of the virtual model in order to obtain an optimized virtual model with areas of at least one of differentiated relative density and differentiated morphology, wherein the topological optimization redefines a distribution of masses within the virtual model, on millimetric or micrometric scale, while maintaining unaltered a macroscopic geometry;
• (iii) preparing said foamable polymeric material;
• (iv) inserting said foamable polymeric material into a mold;
• (v) solubilizing under pressure at least one foaming agent in the foamable polymeric material placed in the mold with a pressure profile of said at least one foaming agent variable over at least one of time and space as a function of the topological optimization;
• (vi) releasing the pressure to produce a product made of foamed polymeric material provided with said areas of at least one of differentiated relative density and differentiated morphology;
• and
• (vii) removing the product of foamed polymeric material from the mold.