Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Recycling of reclaimed or purified process material
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-17
2004-08-24
Stoner, Kiley (Department: 1725)
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Recycling of reclaimed or purified process material
C264S108000, C264S220000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06780352
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to reformable materials, and more specifically to mixtures, primarily solid/liquid mixtures, that can be formed into desired shapes and then re-used to form other desired shapes. The desired shapes may be end products, or may be templates or tools used to form end products or other templates or tools.
The prior art for making molds or tooling deals for the most part with fabricating, machining, layered deposition forming, molding or casting of tools for a single dedicated purpose. While the tools may be modified or the materials recycled, often this is accomplished only with multiple steps and at considerable expense. Specific instances of quickly reformable molds have been found that rely on beads, sand or other particulate materials being blown or poured into a container with at least one flexible or elastically extensible surface. An article is pushed against or surrounded by the flexible surface and the contained particulate material, and then a vacuum is pulled on the container to remove air so that ambient air pressure consolidates the beads or particles and holds the flexible surface against them in the shape of the article. Likewise, numerous instances have been found of cushions, pads or seats that rely on introducing or vacuuming air from a bead-filled, flexible or stretchable sealed envelope, while other instances have been found of reformable shapes comprising flexible envelopes that contain mixtures of beads or microspheres combined with binding yet flowable lubricants or highly viscous materials. Some of these shapes have been made temperature responsive, so that heat would soften them and cooling would harden them.
The following U.S. patents relate to casting, molding, and fabrication:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,517,902 (Luebkeman);
U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,395 (Hägglund);
U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,241 (Freitag);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,167 (Ohta et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,121 (Goodno);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,070 (Fischer et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,388 (Frailey);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,597 (Van Ert et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,189 (Uzaki et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,742 (McCollum); and
U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,808 (Essinger et al.).
The following U.S. patents relate to formable objects of use:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,961 (Von Heck);
U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,046 (Davis et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,811 (Hayes);
U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,190 (Tarnoff et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,138 (Drew et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,169 (Parrish et al.);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,409 (Pearce); and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,763 (Thomas et al.).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In brief, the present invention provides a reversible state-changeable mixture comprising a plurality of solid bodies and a carrier medium, with the carrier medium filling any voids or interstices between the bodies. Within the mixture, the solid bodies can be caused to transition from a formable state, preferably a near-liquid or fluent condition of mobility, to a stable, force-resisting condition through introduction and then extraction of a slight excess quantity of the carrier medium beyond that required to fill the interstices of the bodies when closely packed. In most embodiments, the carrier medium is a liquid preferably excluding any air or other gases from the mixture, and most of the discussion will revolve around such embodiments. However, some embodiments use a carrier medium that is a liquid-gas froth.
The mixture can be rapidly shifted from a formable (preferably near-liquid or fluent) state to a stable force-resisting state and back again to the formable state, through slightly altering the carrier-solid proportions of the mixture, and the invention further provides methods and apparatus for using the mixture. Embodiments are characterized by one or more of the following advantages: the ability to pressurize a mixture and drive it against a complex surface as if it were a liquid; the ability to create a “near-net” or extremely accurate representation of a shape due to the negligible volumetric change that accompanies a state change; the ability to effect the state-change with a very small volume of single-constituent transfer and with consequently small actuation devices without the need for a vacuum pump, without chemical reactions, and with no need for thermal or electrical energy to be applied to the mixture; the ability to greatly alter the volume of any elastic or otherwise dimensionally changeable container, envelope or chamber through the free-flowing transfer of the mixture from one container to another; and the ability to tailor the mixture to satisfy a wide variety of physical specifications in either the flowable or the stable state.
The mixture can be used in reformable molds or other shaping tools, and in reusable templates that capture the dimensions of impressed shapes for transfer to a mold. The mixture can also be used in any product or shape that benefits from the incorporation of arbitrary reformability or precise reconfigurability. The mixtures further provide useful properties for use in a wide range of shock-absorbing, leveling, protective and supportive elements or apparatus.
The mixture in its formable state may be loosely compared to quicksand, while the mixture in its stable state may resemble hard-packed sand or even cement, with the transition being caused by the transfer of a relatively small amount of liquid. Hence the mixture, while in the formable state, includes enough liquid to fill the interstices between the nested solid bodies, and an excess amount of liquid that is referred to as the transition liquid. In the stable state the transition liquid is absent and the bodies are completely packed or nested.
In preferred embodiments the solid bodies are uniform, generally ordered, and closely spaced, with the predominate mass of the bodies close-packed and touching. To create mobility, the transition liquid is introduced in just-sufficient quantity to create a fluent condition by providing a clearance between some of the bodies, which clearance permits the introduction of at least two simultaneous slip planes between ordered masses of the bodies at any point in the mixture. The bodies themselves separate freely from one another under movement of the liquid and without turbulent mixing, and shift relative to one another generally in ordered bulk masses. The bodies should be of a density that is close enough to that of the liquid to permit flow of the bodies along with the liquid, or should have a size or structure that facilitates movement of the bodies along with the liquid.
In a method according to an embodiment of the invention, the surface of the mixture while in the formable state is first made to conform to a desired shape. The bodies in the mixture are then caused to transition from the fluent condition to the stable condition through extraction of the transition liquid. This extraction removes the clearances required to provide slip-planes between ordered masses of the solid bodies, thereby causing the bodies to make nested, packed, interlocking or otherwise stable consolidated contact. The mixture, now in the stable state, has a surface that conforms to the desired shape.
The invention provides methods for using the mixture in molds, templates or other products through holding the mixture in, or transferring quantities of the mixture while in the fluent condition into and out of variable-contour or variable-volume containers or chambers. The mixture can be stabilized by removal of the transition liquid, which may cause an elastic membrane to be pushed against the consolidated bodies by ambient pressure, or by transition liquid removal that causes the solid bodies to pack together under liquid tensile forces, thereby creating an ordered, deformation-resisting structure through surface friction or through surface adhesion of one body to another.
Certain preferred embodiments of the invention provide for holding the mixture inside a container or transporting the mixture into a container with at least one flexible, elastically deformable and stretchable wall,
2Phase Technologies, Inc.
Kerns Kevin P.
Stoner Kiley
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
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