Fibre-reinforced composite moulding and manufacture thereof
AssigneeGurit (UK) Ltd.
InventorsKevin Steven Cadd, Christopher William Bunce
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Moulding material comprising at least one dry fibrous reinforcement layer having a surface resin material conjoined to a first surface thereof and a structural resin material conjoined to a second surface thereof wherein the structural resin material is provided with a recess which is free from resin and is located at the edge of the structural resin layer and wherein the dry fibrous reinforcement layer provides a venting structure to allow entrapped air to pass out during processing. The material of the present invention can be used to form a composite which can be used as a surface coating for large components such as wind turbines.
Claims68
A moulding material comprising at least one dry fibrous reinforcement layer having a surface resin material layer conjoined to a first surface thereof and a structural resin material layer conjoined to a second surface thereof, wherein an elongate edge of the structural resin material layer is located inwardly of an adjacent elongate edge of at least the surface resin material layer to provide a stepped configuration in which the structural resin material is provided with a stepped recess which is free from resin and is located at the edge of the structural resin layer.
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A method of manufacturing a fibre-reinforced composite moulding, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) disposing a plurality of moulding material segments on a mould surface to form a continuous array of segments on the mould surface, each segment comprising a surface resin material layer and a dry fibrous reinforcement layer over the surface resin material layer, wherein the continuous array is assembled by overlapping the plurality of segments such that at least one elongate edge of each segment overlaps an adjacent segment whereby the surface resin material layer of each segment overlies an elongate edge of the dry fibrous reinforcement layer of the adjacent segment;
- (b) providing a structural resin material layer over the dry fibrous reinforcement layer,
- (c) heating the assembly to cause the structural resin to flow into and impregnate the dry fibrous reinforcement;
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- (d) curing the surface and structural resin materials to form the fibre-reinforced composite moulding which comprises a surface portion formed from the surface resin material layer laminated to a structural portion formed from the at least one layer of fibrous reinforcing material and the structural resin.
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A fibre-reinforced composite moulding comprising a surface portion laminated to a structural portion, the surface portion being formed of a surfacing layer comprising a plurality of surfacing layer segments moulded together to form a continuous surfacing layer, the surfacing layer comprising a first cured resin material supported on a carrier of a sheet material, and the structural portion being formed from at least one layer of fibrous reinforcing material and a cured second resin material, at least one layer of the fibrous reinforcing material being formed of a plurality of segments each of which overlies a respective surfacing layer segment, and each surfacing layer segment overlapping an adjacent segment of the fibrous reinforcing material.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.