Method of manufacturing and inflatable figure from flexible plastic sheet material

摘要

An inflatable three dimensional body is formed out of two thin sheets of flexible thermoplastic material by vacuum-forming surface contours in the sheets, and then securing the edge areas of the sheets together, as by heat welding. The mold member used in the vacuum-forming step is constructed so that convex projections on the mold member surface are sized differently than the corresponding projections in the pressurized hollow body. The mold member design takes into account contour changes taking place in the plastic sheet materials during the pressurization step.