Polymer/WUCS mat for use in sheet molding compounds
AssigneeOwens Corning Fiberglas Technology, Inc.
InventorEnamul Haque
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of forming a molding mat formed bundles of reinforcing fibers and bonding materials is provided. The reinforcing fibers are preferably wet use chopped strand glass fibers (WUCS). The bonding materials may be any thermosetting material having a melting point less than the reinforcing fiber. The molding mat may be formed by partially opening the wet use chopped strand glass fibers and filamentizing the bonding materials, blending the reinforcement and bonding fibers, forming the reinforcement and bonding fibers into a sheet, and bonding the sheet. During bonding, the sheet is heated to a temperature above the melting point of the bonding fibers but below the temperature of the glass fibers. The molding mat thus formed may be used as a reinforcement material in sheet molding compounds.
Claims6
A method of making a molding mat for use as a reinforcement in a sheet molding compound comprising the steps of:
- at least partially opening bales of agglomerated wet reinforcement fibers and forming bundles of wet reinforcement fibers;
- removing water from said bundles of wet reinforcement fibers to form dehydrated reinforcement fiber bundles;
- mixing said dehydrated reinforcement fiber bundles with bonding fibers to form a substantially uniform mixture of said dehydrated reinforcement fiber bundles and bonding fibers;
- forming said mixture of dehydrated reinforcement fiber bundles and bonding fibers into a sheet;
- and
- bonding said dehydrated reinforcement fiber bundles and bonding fibers to form a molding mat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.