The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 18, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 08, 1999
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
An extrusion system for providing a foamed material in which a material such as a polymer material is supplied to an extruder for movement through a rotating screw member. The material is placed in a molten state and a foaming agent, such as a supercritical fluid, is introduced into the extruder at a selected pressure so that a two-phase mixture of the molten material and the foaming agent is formed. The foaming agent is then diffused into and dissolved in the molten material to form a single-phase solution which is forwarded from a solution formation to a nucleation device. A thermodynamic instability is induced through a rapid pressure drop, e.g., higher than 0.9 GPa/s in the nucleation device to nucleate microcells in the solution. A further shaping device, e.g., a die, can be used to produce a foamed material of a desired shape.