Thermoplastic composite master sheets and tapes and method
AssigneeWeb Industries, Inc.
InventorsGrand Hou, Manish Baldevbhai Patel, Charouny Chansipaeng-Lee, Mark L. Richardson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for the production of thermoplastic composite sheets whose fibers are other than perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the sheet and which are capable of being slit into sheets, strips and/or tapes of custom widths.
Claims20
A continuous thermoplastic composite tape or strip of predetermined width formed by slitting to said predetermined width a continuous thermoplastic composite master sheet material of at least 10 meters in length comprising i) a thermoplastic composite component comprising at least one oriented thermoplastic composite sheet, said oriented thermoplastic composite sheet formed by cutting a conventional thermoplastic composite sheet at a non-zero angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the conventional thermoplastic composite sheet to form cut segments having cut ends and side edges, aligning the segments side edge-to-side edge with a slight overlap and fusing or welding the overlap to form a continuous oriented thermoplastic composite sheet and ii) a continuous carrier sheet, said carrier sheet having at least one mating surface with an adhesive or tacky material applied thereto to which the continuous oriented thermoplastic composite sheet is aligned and mated along its longitudinal axis, said carrier sheet being a polymer film, paper or a cellulosic sheet material and configured to be removable from the thermoplastic composite component, said conventional thermoplastic composite sheet comprising a thermoplastic polymer sheet having incorporated therein a plurality of unidirectional fibers extending along the length of the sheet.
A method of forming continuous strips or tapes of at least 10 meters in length and of predetermined widths of an oriented thermoplastic composite sheet material, said method comprising feeding an oriented master sheet material of at least 10 meters in length through a slitting apparatus having one or more knives, blades or cutters which knives, blades or cutters are configured to slit the oriented master sheet material into strips and/or tapes of predetermined widths wherein the oriented master sheet material comprises a thermoplastic composite component comprising at least one oriented thermoplastic composite sheet, said oriented thermoplastic composite sheet formed by cutting a conventional thermoplastic composite sheet at a non-zero angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the conventional thermoplastic composite sheet to form cut segments having cut ends and side edges, aligning the segments side edge-to-side edge with a slight overlap and fusing or welding the overlap to form a continuous oriented thermoplastic composite sheet and ii) a continuous carrier sheet, said carrier sheet having at least one mating surface with an adhesive or tacky material applied thereto to which the continuous oriented thermoplastic composite sheet is aligned and mated along its longitudinal axis, said carrier sheet being a polymer film, paper or a cellulosic sheet material and configured to be removable from the thermoplastic composite component, said conventional thermoplastic composite sheet comprising a thermoplastic polymer sheet having incorporated therein a plurality of unidirectional fibers extending along the length of the sheet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.