Method and means for making pultruded fiber reinforced articles
AssigneeIndustrial Technology Research Institute
InventorShan-Nan Tong
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A continuous process for producing pultruded fiber-reinforced articles and the apparatus for such processing. Resin and hardener are continuously mixed and conveyed, out of contact with the atmosphere, into a die in which the mixture contacts reinforcing fibers which are also continuously conveyed into the die. The fibers are impregnated with the mixture and continuously shaped in the die, without contact with the atmosphere.
Claims12
A pultrusion process for producing composite articles which include a substantially airtight die having an inlet portion, an upstream zone, and a downstream shaping zone, comprising:
- conveying a thermosetting resin and a hardener in predetermined proportions into a mixing zone and mixing the same, out of contact with ambient air, therein;
- continuously conveying said resin mixture, out of contact with ambient air, to said inlet portion;
- continuously feeding a plurality of reinforcing fibers into said inlet portion in an array corresponding in shape generally to the periphery of a transverse cross-section of the composite article, said die being disposed axially to the direction of feed of the array of said fibers;
- controlling the rate of feed of said resin mixture into said die in relation to the rate of feed of the plurality of fibers;
- continuously impregnating the fibers with the resin mixture in said upstream zone;
- continuously shaping the impregnated fibers within said shaping zone into a cross-sectional shape corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the composite article;
- and
- pulling the fibers lengthwise from said die to form the composite article.
A pultrusion apparatus for producing an elongated composite article comprising:
- a mixing zone for continuously mixing a thermosetting resin and a hardener in predetermined portions to form a resin mixture;
- conduit means connecting said mixing zone to the inlet of a die, said die having a transverse cross-section corresponding essentially to the cross-section of the elongated composite article;
- control means for controlling the rate of feed in said resin mixture to said die in proportion to the rate of feed of fibers to said die;
- a first zone within said die for continuously impregnating said fibers with said resin mixture;
- a second zone for continuing said impregnation and for shaping the impregnated fibers from the first zone into the transverse cross-sectional shape of the composite article;
- means for maintaining said resin mixture in said mixing zone, conduit, and die out of contact with the atmosphere;
- and pulling means downstream of said die for pulling the shaped continuously material out from said die.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.