1-17. (canceled)
18. A method for the production of shaped foam bodies, comprising:
providing a composition having foam particles and binder;
introducing the composition into a space which is bounded on at least one side by a pressing surface; and
exerting pressure onto the composition by means of the pressing surface; wherein the method further comprises:
irradiating microwaves through the pressing surface into the composition, while pressure is being exerted onto the composition and wherein a ventilation medium, in particular environmental air or dried air, is directed through the space.
19. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the exertion of pressure comprises: pressing a stiff layer, which locally or entirely is essentially transparent for microwaves, against the composition inside the space, the stiff layer having a surface which faces toward the space, either with the surface of the stiff layer being provided by the pressing surface and directly adjoining the space, or with the surface of the stiff layer exerting pressure on an interlayer which is transparent for microwaves and is provided by the pressing surface that directly adjoins the space.
20. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the irradiation of microwaves is provided by irradiation of microwaves from outside the space through the pressing surface, at least a majority of the microwaves propagating through the pressing surface into the space.
21. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the irradiation of microwaves comprises: exciting a plurality of microwave antennas arranged flat and parallel to the pressing surface with a common radiofrequency microwave signal, which is guided via a distributor instrument from a radiofrequency source to at least two of the microwave antennas or to all the microwave antennas.
22. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the composition is at least partially fed continuously through the space by means of a conveyor belt and the pressure is exerted onto the composition continuously or with periodic repetition while the microwaves are being irradiated onto the composition located in the space, or, in an individual manufacturing method, the composition is initially introduced into the space, the composition introduced into the space is then exposed to the exertion of pressure and the irradiation of microwaves and finally the composition processed in this way is removed from the space.
23. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein exerting a pressure onto the composition is carried out by movement of a counterbearing surface lying opposite the pressing surface, movement of the pressing surface, or movement of these two surfaces in the direction of the space, or by executing a movement of at least one roller and the composition relative to one another in a direction parallel to or inside the pressing surface, the at least one roller producing a roller pressing surface which extends lengthwise parallel to or inside the pressing surface and presses onto the composition.
24. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the composition is introduced into the space, which is bounded on each of two sides by mutually opposite pressing surfaces, between which the composition is provided; and
exerting pressure onto the composition by means of a plunger or rollers which are connected to the pressing surfaces in such a way as to transmit force; microwaves being irradiated through the two pressing surfaces into the composition while pressure is being exerted onto the composition by the two pressing surfaces.
25. The method as claimed in claim 18, which further comprises: the exerting pressure onto the composition for a period of time which immediately follows the irradiation of microwaves and which lasts until the composition has cooled at least by a predetermined minimum temperature difference after the irradiation of microwaves, or until the composition has set enough to have an essentially stable shape.
26. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the method is carried out in batch operation, wherein the composition is introduced into the space, which is fully enclosed except for one side, wherein the pressure is exerted in particular in a range of 104-106 Pa.
27. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the method is carried out in batch operation, wherein the composition is introduced into the space, which is fully enclosed except for one side, wherein the pressure is exerted in particular in a range of 5\xd7104-2\xd7105 Pa.
28. A device for pressing shaped foam bodies under the effect of heat, comprising:
at least one pressing surface and a counterbearing surface lying opposite, between which a space extends which is adapted to receive a composition of foam particles and binder, the pressing surface and counterbearing surface adjoining the space directly;
at least one stiff layer which locally or entirely is essentially transparent for microwaves and has a surface facing toward the space, which is connected to the pressing surface in such a way as to transmit force; and
a microwave radiator unit which is arranged on a side of the stiff layer remote from the space and is aligned relative to the space in order to irradiate microwaves into the space through the stiff layer, wherein the surface comprises a channel or a groove system allowing ventilation and removal of emerging water outward.
29. The device as claimed in claim 28, wherein either the surface facing toward the space comprises the pressing surface and the stiff layer adjoins the space directly via the surface facing toward the space, or the pressing surface is provided by a microwave-transparent interlayer which directly adjoins the space and is connected to the stiff layer in such a way as to transmit force.
30. The device as claimed in claim 28, which further comprises a conveyor belt which is adapted to feed the composition into the space, is essentially transparent for microwaves and extends between the microwave radiator unit and the space, either with the conveyor belt extending between the stiff layer and the space or with the conveyor belt extending between the microwave radiator unit and the stiff layer; and the device further comprises rollers along which the conveyor belt is fed and the rollers are connected to the pressing surface in such a way as to transmit force.
31. The device as claimed in claim 28, which further comprises a plunger that is mounted in order to execute a longitudinal movement with respect to the space and is connected to the counterbearing surface or the pressing surface in such a way as to transmit force.
32. The device as claimed in claim 28, comprising: a microwave radiator layer in which the microwave radiator unit is arranged, and a spacer layer which is arranged between the microwave radiator layer and the space and is essentially transparent for microwaves, with the spacer layer comprising the stiff layer or with the spacer layer being connected to the stiff layer in such a way as to transmit force; the spacer layer is removable from the microwave radiator layer.
33. The device as claimed in claim 28, wherein the device is suited for batch operation, the space being fully enclosed except for one side.
34. A microwave radiator unit for the heat treatment of foam compositions, comprising: a multiplicity of microwave antennas which are arranged in a plane array and at least two of which are connected through a distributor device to a common microwave signal source that feeds the at least two antennas.
35. The microwave radiator unit as claimed in claim 34, wherein the microwave antennas comprise horn radiators aligned in the same direction or rod antennas arranged mutually parallel.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for fitting a grid-patterned surface data onto a portion of a three-dimensional shape data including a plurality of polygons, the method comprising:
a first step of detecting a condition of a plurality of polygons in the three dimensional shape data that are located at a periphery of a surface to be fitted the surface data;
a second step of determining a condition of a grid-pattern of the surface data on the basis of the detected condition of the plurality of polygons; and
a third step of fining the surface data whose grid-pattern has been determined onto the three dimensional shape data, wherein
fitting the surface data whose grid-pattern has been determined onto the three-dimensional shape data includes adding new surface to the three-dimensional shape data.
2. The method according to claim 1,
wherein said condition of the plurality of polygons includes an orientation thereof, and said condition of the grid-pattern includes an orientation thereof for the three-dimensional shape data.
3. The method according to claim 2,
wherein the orientation of the plurality of polygons is detected in the first step by picking up a vector whose starting point is at a vertex of the polygon located at the periphery of the surface to be fitted, and whose end point is at a vertex connected to the vertex taken as the starting point, and the orientation of the grid-pattern is determined in the second step so as to take along direction of the picked up vector.
4. The method according to claim 1,
wherein said condition of the plurality of polygons includes a position thereof in a three-dimensional space, and said condition of the grid-pattern includes an orientation thereof for the three-dimensional shape data.
5. The method according to claim 4,
wherein said second step comprising sub-steps of:
generating a rectangular bounding box that includes the portion to be fitted the surface data;
setting a grid inside and outside the bounding box;
obtaining a Z value of a vertex of the grid as a boundary value;
rotating the bounding box so that an evaluation value based of the boundary value is minimized or maximized; and
determining the orientation of the surface so that the orientation of the grid-pattern aligns with a coordinate space whose X or Y axis is taken along a direction in which the grid of the bounding box is oriented by the rotation.
6. The method according to claim 1,
wherein said condition of the plurality of polygons includes a density thereof, and said condition of the grid-pattern includes a density thereof.
7. The method according to claim 6,
wherein the density of the plurality of polygons is detected in the first step by picking up vectors each consisting of two adjacent vertices in the vertices forming each polygon, and in the second step, the density in X direction is detected on the basis of an average value of the x components of the vectors near the X-axis direction among the picked up vectors, the density in Y direction is detected on the basis of an average value of the Y components of the vectors near the Y-axis direction among the picked up vectors, and the density of the grid is determined on the basis of the detected densities.
8. The method according to claim 1,
wherein said portion of the three-dimensional shape data is where three-dimensional shape data is absent.
9. The method according to claim 1,
wherein said portion of the three-dimensional shape data is designated from within the three-dimensional shape data by an operator.
10. A method for fitting a grid-patterned surface data onto a portion of a three-dimensional shape data consisting of a plurality of polygons, the method comprising:
a first step of picking up a vector whose starting point is at a vertex of a polygon located at a periphery of the surface to be fitted the surface data;
a second step of determining an orientation of the surface data on the basis of the picked up vector; and
a third step of fitting the surface data to the three-dimensional shape data in the determined orientation, wherein
fitting the surface data to the three-dimensional shape data in the determined orientation includes adding new surface to the three-dimensional shape data.
11. The method according to claim 10,
wherein in the second step, X-Y coordinates are determined so as to minimize a sum of the squares of the products of the x and y components of the respective vectors, and the orientation of the surface data is determined according to the determined X-Y coordinates.
12. The method according to claim 10,
wherein in the second step, X-Y coordinates are determined using a technique of principal component analysis, and the orientation of the surface data is determined according to the determined X-Y coordinates.
13. A method for fitting a grid-patterned surface data onto a portion of a three-dimensional shape data consisting of a plurality of polygons, the method comprising steps of:
generating a rectangular bounding box that includes the portion to be fitted the surface data;
setting a grid inside and outside the bounding box;
obtaining an evaluation value based on Z value of a vertex of the grid;
determining the orientation of the surface according to orientation of the bounding box which makes the evaluation value a minimum or a maximum; and
fitting the grid-patterned surface data onto the three-dimensional shape data in the determined orientation, wherein
fitting the surface data onto the three-dimensional shape data in the determined orientation includes adding new surface to the three-dimensional shape data.
14. A method for fitting a grid-patterned surface data onto a portion of a three-dimensional shape data consisting of a plurality of polygons, the method comprising steps of:
picking up vectors each consisting of two adjacent vertices in the vertices forming the portion;
determining a density of grid points in X direction on the basis of an average value of the x components of the vectors near the X-axis direction among the picked up vectors;
determining the density of grid points in Y direction on the basis of an average value of the Y components of the vectors near the Y-axis direction among the picked up vectors; and
fitting the surfaces, the density of which grid is determined, to the three-dimensional shape data, wherein
fitting the surface to the three-dimensional shape data includes adding new surface to the three-dimensional shape data.
15. An apparatus for fitting a grid-patterned surface data onto a portion of a three-dimensional shape data consisting of a plurality of polygons, the apparatus comprising:
a detector for detecting a condition of a plurality of polygons in the three-dimensional shape data that are located at a periphery of a surface to be fitted the surface data;
a determination portion for determining a condition of a grid-pattern of the surface data on the basis of the detected condition of the plurality of polygons; and
a processor for fitting the surface data whose grid-pattern has been determined onto the three-dimensional shape data, wherein
fitting the surface data whose grid-pattern has been determined onto the three-dimensional shape data includes adding new surface to the three-dimensional shape data.
16. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium, having encoded thereon a computer readable program for fitting a grid-pattern surface onto a portion of a three-dimensional shape data including a plurality of polygons, by performing the operations of:
detecting a condition of a plurality of polygons in the three-dimensional shape data that are located at a periphery of a surface to be fitted the surface data;
determining a condition of a grid-pattern of the surface data on the basis of the detected condition of the plurality of polygons; and
fitting the surface data whose grid-pattern has been determined onto the three-dimensional shape data, wherein
fitting the surface data whose grid-pattern has been determined onto the three-dimensional shape data includes adding new surface to the three-dimensional shape data.