Process for producing a plastic leaf spring, as well as a plastic leaf spring appropriately manufactured according to this process

A process for producing a leaf spring of elongated shape of variable thickness over its length having a leaf spring body provided with two ends which is composed at least in the essential springy sections of a fiber-reinforced plastic material in which high-strength reinforcing fibers pass at least approximately in the direction of the maximum extension of the spring material occurring under spring loads, and in which spring-eyes are appropriately integrated in the leaf spring body at the spring ends comprising forming a continuous web (9) comprised of reinforcing fibers in the form of fiber rovings or fibrous tissues, with the reinforcing fibers appropriately impacted or impregnated with a hardenable plastic substance, placing intermediate layer pieces (37) on the continuous web (9), winding the continuous web (9) in several layers into a continuous reel (35) on a rotating pick-up device (27) with at least two pick-up elements (28), whereby the said intermediate layer pieces (37) arrange themselves in the continuous reel (35) between contiguous superposed continuous web layers (36), placing the continuous reel (35) together wiht other components forming the leaf spring into a mold having a molding chamber with a cylindrical shaped contact area, so that the continuous reel (35) adjoins along essentially its entire periphery the cylindrical-shaped contact area of the molding chamber whereby appropriately hollow spaces are still present between reinforcing fibers in the molding chamber, optionally filling thereafter the said hollow spaces if present by the introduction of a hardenable plastic substance, solidifying the plastic material in the mold and curing the latter to form a leaf spring blank.