Aligned fibres and a method of making the same
AssigneeThe University of Sydney
InventorSeyed Ali Hadigheh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided herein is a method for aligning discontinuous fibres comprising: providing a stream of discontinuous fibres in a dispersion medium; applying a shear stress to the dispersion medium to align at least a portion of the discontinuous fibres; and disposing the at least a portion of the aligned discontinuous fibres on a substrate thereby providing a layer of substantially aligned discontinuous fibres. Also provided are discontinuous fibres aligned by such method and a composite material formed from the aligned discontinuous fibres.
Claims20
A method for aligning discontinuous fibres comprising:
- providing a stream of discontinuous fibres in a dispersion medium;
- applying a shear stress to the dispersion medium using a shearing element to align at least a portion of the discontinuous fibres, wherein the shearing element has an inlet for receiving the stream of discontinuous fibres in a dispersion medium and an outlet,
- wherein the shearing element comprises a first region having at least one ramp surface on a first plane having an angle between about 5 to about 90 degrees relative to the direction of the stream of discontinuous fibres for aligning at least a portion of the discontinued fibres and a second region having at least two convergent surfaces on a second plane for aligning at least a portion of the discontinued fibres,
- wherein the angle between the first plane and the second plane is between about 5 to about 90 degrees;
- and
- disposing the at least a portion of the aligned discontinuous fibres on a substrate thereby providing a layer of substantially aligned discontinuous fibres.
A fibre aligning apparatus comprising:
- a shearing element for applying a shear stress to a dispersion medium having an inlet adapted for receiving a stream of discontinuous fibres in a dispersion medium and an outlet,
- wherein the shearing element comprises a first region having at least one ramp surface on a first plane having an angle between about 5 to about 90 degrees relative to the direction of the stream of discontinuous fibres for aligning at least a portion of the discontinued fibres and a second region having at least two convergent surfaces on a second plane for aligning at least a portion of the discontinued fibres,
- wherein the angle between the first plane and the second plane is between about 5 to about 90 degrees;
- such that in use, the stream of discontinuous fibres undergoes shear stress thereby providing substantially aligned discontinuous fibres.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.