Process for manufacturing a precursor material comprising a polymer material and a fibre material

A process for producing a precursor material for the manufacture of a composite material granulate, said precursor material comprising a polymer material and a fibre material, said process comprising the steps of, in this order:

• a. combining the polymer material and the fibre material to form a preblend;
• b. agitating the preblend in a blending device comprising a blending means by operating the blending means at a velocity sufficient to bring about an increase of the temperature of the preblend to at least a temperature above the VICAT softening point, or to at least a temperature within or above the melting temperature range of the polymer material;
• c. maintaining the velocity of the blending means until the specific motor power needed to maintain the velocity of the blending means has increased by at least a predetermined first amount or has reached at least a predetermined first value and then reducing the velocity of the blending means by a predetermined amount;
• d. repeating the previous step c until a final predetermined velocity is reached;
• e. maintaining the final velocity of the blending means until the specific motor power needed to maintain the final velocity of the blending means increases by a predetermined second amount or reaches a second predetermined value, thereby forming an intermediate material formed of smaller and larger agglomerates of intermediate material;
• and
• f. comminuting the formed intermediate material in a comminuting device by operating the comminuting device at a non-zero velocity allowing for a decrease in temperature, until the temperature of the intermediate material falls below a final threshold value, to break up larger agglomerates of intermediate material and coalesce smaller agglomerates of intermediate material, thereby forming the precursor material.