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US 2003/0205508 A1Published application
Process and apparatus for determination of fiber length in reinforced thermoplastic composites
OwnerCharles Weber, Chris Rannenberginventors
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Abstract
The present invention comprises a method for determining the average length of a reinforcing fiber of a composite material comprising a resin and a plurality of reinforcing fibers encapsulated therein. In addition, a fiber separating apparatus for dividing a sample of reinforcing fibers into fractions defined by the relative lengths of the reinforcing fibers is also disclosed.
Claims13
A fiber separating mechanism comprising:
- a top section comprising a hollow cylinder having a length sufficient to enclose therein a predetermined volume;
- a screen section comprising a hollow cylinder of substantially the same diameter as the top section, the screen section having a predetermined height and a membrane of screen cloth stretched entirely across the inner diameter thereof;
- and
- a bottom section comprising a hollow cylinder having a closed bottom end, the top section, screen section and bottom section being capable of being coupled to one another so as to form a single hollow cylinder having a closed bottom end.
1 more element
A method of determining an average length of a reinforcing fiber in a composite material comprising a resin and a plurality of reinforcing fibers, the method comprising the steps of:
- obtaining an appropriately sized sample of the composite material;
- removing the resin from the composite material by exposing the sample of composite material to an elevated temperature for a predetermined period of time;
- annealing the reinforcing fibers;
- weighing the resulting sample of reinforcing fibers to obtain a sample weight;
- placing the sample of reinforcing fibers from the composite material in a fiber separating mechanism to divide the sample of reinforcing fiber into a plurality of fractions, each fraction comprising reinforcing fibers of substantially the same size;
- weighing the plurality of fractions;
- and
- calculating an average fiber length from the relative weights of each of the plurality of fractions and the weight of the total reinforcing fiber sample.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.