Method of producing a filament wound curved product and product obtained thereby
AssigneeDsm IP Assets B.V.
InventorsRoelof Marissen, Lucas Van Den Akker, Sotiris Koussios, Hen Hoefnagels
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a curved product, and in particular an armor product. The armor product is produced by a filament winding process in which a plurality of reinforcing elements in the form of fibers and/or tapes are impregnated with a polymer matrix and wound onto a mandrel. The polymer matrix comprises a solution and/or dispersion of a polymer in a carrier fluid, which carrier fluid is at least partly evaporated during and/or after winding. The armor product comprises a high amount of reinforcing elements with respect to the total mass of the product.
Claims16
A filament winding process for producing a 3D curved product comprising:
- (a) winding a plurality of reinforcing elements having a tensile strength of at least 1.6 GPa onto a mandrel which substantially approximates an inner shape of the 3D curved product to form a 3D curved fiber structure preform having a shape which substantially approximates the 3D curved product, (b) impregnating the plurality of reinforcing elements or the 3D curved fiber structure preform with a polymer matrix comprised of a solution and/or a dispersion of a polymer in a carrier fluid, (c) at least partly evaporating the carrier fluid from the solution and/or dispersion during and/or after winding the reinforcing elements onto the mandrel according to step (a), (d) consolidating the 3D curved fiber structure preform under elevated pressure onto the mandrel to thereby form the 3D curved fiber structure preform having a shape which substantially approximates the 3D curved product, (e) cutting the 3D curved fiber structure preform thereby also removing the mandrel, and (f) subjecting the fiber structure to a subsequent pressing process at elevated temperature and pressure to form the 3D curved product, wherein the reinforcing elements are present in an amount of at least 85% of the total mass of the 3D curved product.
A filament winding process for producing a 3D curved product comprising:
- (a) winding a plurality of reinforcing elements having a tensile strength of at least 1.6 GPa onto a mandrel which substantially approximates an inner shape of the 3D curved product to form a 3D curved fiber structure having a shape which substantially approximates the 3D curved product such that when positioned on a flat surface the 3D curved fiber structure has a ratio of maximum elevation with respect to the flat surface relative to a largest linear dimension within a projected surface of the 3D curved fiber structure onto the flat surface of at least 0.20,
- (b) impregnating the plurality of reinforcing elements or the 3D curved fiber structure with a polymer matrix comprised of a solution and/or a dispersion of a polymer in a carrier fluid,
- (c) at least partly evaporating the carrier fluid from the solution and/or dispersion during and/or after winding the reinforcing elements onto the mandrel according to step (a),
- (d) consolidating the 3D curved fiber structure under elevated pressure onto the mandrel to thereby form a 3D curved fiber structure preform having a shape which substantially approximates the 3D curved product,
- (e) cutting the 3D curved fiber structure preform thereby also removing the mandrel, and
- (f) subjecting the 3D curved fiber structure preform to a subsequent pressing process at elevated temperature and pressure to thereby form the 3D curved product, wherein
- the reinforcing elements are present in an amount of at least 85% the total mass of the 3D curved product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.