Fiber-filled molded articles
AssigneeTrexel, Inc.
InventorsLevi A. Kishbaugh, Kevin J. Levesque, Albert H. Guillemette, Liqin Chen, Jingyi Xu, Kelvin T. Okamoto
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Abstract
Polymer molding processes, such as injection-molding processes, include use of a viscosity-reducing supercritical fluid additive resulting in less breakage of reinforcing fibers upon introduction into the mold.
Claims24
An injection-molded polymeric foam article including a plurality of glass fibers dispersed in a polymer foam matrix, wherein at least 10% of the total number of fibers have a length greater than 0.55 mm and the article includes a portion defining a first direction substantially in which polymeric material fills a mold while forming the article and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, wherein a ratio of flex modulus measured in the first direction over flex modulus measured in the second direction is less than about 1.9.
A method of injection molding a polymeric article comprising:
- conveying polymeric material including a plurality of glass fibers dispersed therein in a downstream direction within a processing space in a polymer processing apparatus;
- introducing a viscosity reducing additive into the polymeric material in the processing space to form a mixture of polymeric material and viscosity reducing additive;
- injecting the mixture into a mold;
- and
- forming an injection-molded polymeric foam article having glass fibers dispersed in a polymer foam matrix, wherein at least 10% of the total number of the fibers in the molded article have a length greater than 0.55 mm and the article includes a portion defining a first direction substantially in which polymeric material fills the mold and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, wherein a ratio of flex modulus measured in the first direction over flex modulus measured in the second direction is less than about 1.9.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.