Plastic core structure manufactured through twin sheet technology
AssigneeShuert Technology, LLC
InventorLyle H. Shuert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A twin sheet core structure made up of two sheets of plastic that have been thermoformed to define arrays of cavities having floors opening to surfaces defined by orthogonally intersecting ribs wherein the sheets are fused together to form a single structure with hollow areas between sheets.
Claims7
A twin sheet cellular core structure characterized by the fused combination of first and second sheets of thermoformed plastic material, each sheet having an outer surface formed by a continuous network of intersecting, partially hollow orthogonally intersecting rib and land structures bordering arrays of receptacles that open to said outer surfaces, wherein each receptacle has inwardly tapering sidewalls of two different alternating polygonal geometry and integral floors and the sheets are fused together in inverted orientation such that the receptacles of one sheet nest with and are partially joined to the receptacles of the other sheet.
A twin-sheet molded plastic core structure comprising:
- a first plastic sheet defining a substantially continuous first surface made up of orthogonally intersecting ribs surrounding receptacles arranged in an array;
- each of receptacles having upwardly and inwardly sloping sidewalls of two different polygonal geometries;
- a second plastic sheet fused to the first sheet and defining a substantially continuous second surface made up of orthogonally intersecting ribs surrounding receptacles arranged in an array substantially similar to the first sheet array;
- each of said receptacles in said second sheet having upwardly and inwardly sloping sidewalls of two different polygonal geometries;
- and
- wherein the receptacles of the arrays in the first and second surfaces are inverted relative to one another and are interleaved between one another such that at least some of the side walls of the receptacle are at least partially fused together.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.