Method of heating semi-finished products
AssigneeEngel Austria GmbH
InventorsStefan Wuschko, Paul Zwicklhuber
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Abstract
A method involves heating fiber-reinforced semi-finished products of differing wall thickness to a required temperature above the glass transition range or the matrix melting temperature of a plastic matrix of the semi-finished product to be heated. In a first step, the semi-finished product to be heated is heated by thermal conduction to below the glass transition range or the matrix melting temperature. In a further step, the remaining amount of heat for reaching the required temperature above the glass transition range or the matrix melting temperature is introduced by thermal radiation or thermal convection.
Claims7
An apparatus for heating fiber-reinforced semi-finished products of differing wall thicknesses, the apparatus comprising:
- a first tool half having a first heatable base plate;
- and
- a second tool half having a second heatable base plate, each of the semi-finished products to be arranged between the first tool half and the second tool half to be heated,
- wherein at least one of the first tool half and the second tool half has a flexible thermal conduction layer adaptable to differences in wall thickness of the semi-finished products to be heated, the flexible thermal conduction layer being configured to transmit heat energy by thermal conduction to the semi-finished products to be heated, and
- wherein the flexible thermal conduction layer is arranged on a surface of at least one of first heatable base plate of the first tool half and the second heatable base plate of the second tool half so as to be located on the surface of the at least one of the first heatable base plate of the first tool half and the second heatable base plate of the second tool half in both an open position and a closed position of first tool half and the second tool half.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.