Resin-soluble veils for composite article fabrication and methods of manufacturing the same

A method of manufacturing a non-woven engineered veil using a melt-blown process, comprising:

• increasing a melt pump speed while simultaneously decreasing an airflow rate;
• loading a material into an extruder wherein the material is a polymer having a native solid phase and adapted to undergo at least partial phase transition to a fluid phase on contact with a component of a curable composition in which the polymer is soluble at a temperature which is less than the temperature for substantial onset of curing of the curable composition and which temperature is less than the inherent melting temperature of a resultant non-woven engineered veil;
• and
• causing the polymer to be extruded from a die head in the form of fibers and onto a moving collector, the fibers forming a non-woven engineered veil wherein increasing the melt pump speed while decreasing the airflow rate provides fibers having a mean diameter of between 10 microns and 16 microns wherein less than 20% of the fibers have a diameter of less than 8 microns, the veil having a fabric areal weight variation of less than 10% across the width of the textile.