Process of making articles from films of thermoplastic material

Claim 2

The process of making an article of thermoplastic film material which comprises: arranging a number of layers in excess of two of stretch oriented heat shrinkable tHermoplastic film material with the faces of at least portions of adjacent layers in contact with each other to form a composite member; cutting in a direction extending through the layers of said composite member and through said portions to cut a discrete element from said composite member and expose cut edges of said layers at the surface of said element; and applying heat to said material during said process to fuse together at least the edges of parts of said portions of said layers; said process including heating said composite member substantially throughout while said composite member is prevented from expanding in a direction perpendicular to said layers to cause at least partial fusion and adherence of the contacting surfaces of adjacent layers of said material without substantial contraction of said composite member in directions parallel to said layers.

Claim 3

The process defined in claim 3 which includes: suspending said element cut from said composite member having at least partial fusion and adherence of said layers in a heating chamber and applying heat to the exposed surfaces thereof so as to cause contraction of sad layers in directions parallel to said layers and expansion in a direction perpendicular to said layers.

Claim 4

The process defined in claim 4 in which the dimension of said element in a direction perpendicular to said layers approaches that of the greatest dimension thereof parallel to said layers and the heat applied to said element causes greater contraction of the layers adjacent the surfaces of said element extending parallel to said layers than the layers midway between said surfaces.

Claim 5

The process defined in claim 4 in which the dimension of said element in a direction perpendicular to said layers greatly exceeds the dimension parallel to said layers and heat is applied differentially to a surface of said element having exposed edges of said layers with respect to an opposite surface to cause said element to curl into an open ringlike product.

Claim 6

The process of making an article of thermoplastic film material which comprises: arranging a number of layers in excess of two of stretch oriented heat shrinkable thermoplastic film material with the faces of at least portions of adjacent layers in contact with each other to form a composite member; cutting in a direction extending through the layers of said composite member and through said portions to cut a discrete element from said composite member and expose cut edges of said layers at the surface of said element; and applying heat to said material during said process to fuse together at least the edges of parts of said portions of said layers; said process including wrapping a plurality of layers of said material upon a mandrel and applying heat to fuse together the contacting surfaces of adjacent layers of said material and form said composite member; and cutting said composite member into open ringlike discrete elements and removing said ringlike elements from said mandrel.

Claim 7

The process of making an article of thermoplastic film material which comprises: arranging a number of layers in excess of two of stretch oriented heat shrinkable thermoplastic film material with the faces of at least portions of adjacent layers in contact with each other to form a composite member; cutting in a direction extending through the layers of said composite member and through said portions to cut a discrete element from said composite member and expose cut edges of said layers at the surface of said element; and applying heat to said material during said process to fuse together at least the edges of parts of said portions of said layers; said process including arranging layers of said material in a generally cylindrical elongated bundle so as to extend axially of said bundle with at least the outer layers wrapped circumferentially around said bundle to form a composite member; said process also including heating said bundle to cAuse the layers thereof to adhere together to form said composite member having a shape similar to that of said bundle; and cutting said composite member in a direction generally laterally of the longitudinal axis of said composite member to produce a disclike discrete element with the cut edges of layers of said material exposed on the faces of said disclike element.

Claim 8

The process of making an article of thermoplastic film material which comprises: arranging a number of layers in excess of two of stretch oriented heat shrinkable thermoplastic film material with the faces of at least portions of adjacent layers in contact with each other to form a composite member; cutting in a direction extending through the layers of said composite member and through said portions to cut a discrete element from said composite member and expose cut edges of sad layers at the surface of said element; and applying heat to said material during said process to fuse together at least the edges of parts of said portions of said layers; said process including arranging layers of said material in a generally cylindrical elongated bundle so as to extend axially of said bundle with layers wrapped circumferentially around said bundle to form a composite member; said process also including cutting said composite member in a direction generally laterally of the longitudinal axis of said composite member to produce a disclike discrete element with the cut edges of layers of said material exposed on the faces of said disclike element.

Claim 9

The process defined in claim 9 which includes applying heat to said disclike element to cause said element to deform into a hollow article as a result of differential contraction of said layers in the direction of such layers and expansion perpendicularly of said layers.

Claim 10

The process defined in claim 10 in which a plurality of individual elongated smaller bundles of said plastic sheet material are placed in the central portion of the first mentioned bundle so as to extend longitudinally thereof.

Claim 11

The process of claim 10 in which at least one elongated smaller bundle is placed in the interior of the first mentioned bundle and has a plurality of layers of said plastic sheet material which are superimposed and then folded into a plurality of loops in contact with each other.

Claim 12

The process of claim 10 in which at least one rod of stretch oriented heat shrinkable thermoplastic material is placed in said bundle so as to extend longitudinally of said bundle.

Claim 13

The process of claim 10 in which a plurality of rods of stretch oriented heat shrinkable thermoplastic material are placed in said bundle so as to extend longitudinally of said bundle and are positioned to form a ring of said rods around a portion of the interior of said bundle.