Method of improving functional durability of toy building elements
AssigneeLego A/S
InventorsRené MIKKELSEN, Emil ANDERSEN, Anne Therese WEYHE
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Abstract
A method for the manufacture of a toy building element with improved functional durability made of an impact modified amorphous material having an enthalpic relaxation of at least 0.3 J/g, such as in the range of 0.3 to 4 J/g and a shrinkage of maximum 0.2%. The present disclosure also relates to a toy building element with improved functional durability made of an impact modified amorphous material having an enthalpic relaxation of at least 0.3 J/g, such as in the range of 0.3 to 4 J/g and a shrinkage of maximum 0.2%.
Claims16
A method for the manufacture of a toy building element with improved functional durability made of an impact modified amorphous material having an enthalpic relaxation of at least 0.3 J/g, such as in the range of 0.3 to 4 J/g and a shrinkage of maximum 0.2%, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a resin comprising a polymer and an impact modifier,
- b) processing the resin to produce the amorphous toy building element,
- c) heat treating the amorphous toy building element at a heat treatment temperature of at least 40 degrees C. for a period of at least 15 minutes, and
- d) cooling the heat treated toy building element to ambient temperature,
- wherein the upper limit of the heat treatment temperature in step c is 20 degrees C. below the onset of glass transition temperature (Tg) of the impact modified amorphous material.
A toy building element with improved functional durability made of an impact modified amorphous material comprising a polymer and an impact modifier and having an enthalpic relaxation of at least 0.3 J/g, such as in the range of 0.3 to 4 J/g and a shrinkage of maximum 0.2%.
A method for the manufacture of a toy building element, comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a resin comprising a polymer and an impact modifier, the amount of polymer in the resin is at least about 50 wt % and the amount of impact modifier in the resin is in the range of about 1-30 wt % each based on the total weight of the resin;
- b) processing the resin to produce the amorphous toy building element;
- c) heat treating the amorphous toy building element at a heat treatment temperature of at least about 40 degrees C. for a period of at least about 15 minutes, but below the heat treatment temperature of the onset of glass transition temperature (Tg) of the impact modified amorphous material;
- and
- d) cooling the heat treated toy building element to ambient temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.