Textiles: manufacturing – Thread finishing – Surface modification of running length
Patent
1998-12-18
2000-08-01
Vanatta, Amy B.
Textiles: manufacturing
Thread finishing
Surface modification of running length
19 65T, D01D 1102
Patent
active
060947918
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for opening a reinforcing fiber bundle, and a method for manufacturing a prepreg, and particularly to a method and apparatus for continuously opening a reinforcing fiber bundle consisting of a plurality of paralleled single fibers or a plurality of mutually paralleled and simultaneously running reinforcing fiber bundles, and a method for manufacturing a yarn prepreg or sheet prepreg by impregnating the opened reinforcing fiber bundle(s) with a resin.
BACKGROUND ARTS
In recent years, prepregs in which reinforcing fibers are impregnated with a matrix resin are broadly used in various industrial fields. For example, sheet prepregs respectively obtained by paralleling a plurality of reinforcing fiber bundles respectively consisting of a plurality of paralleled single fibers such as carbon fibers or glass fibers, and impregnating them with a thermosetting resin such as an epoxy resin or unsaturated polyester resin, etc. are being widely used as general industrial materials such as aircraft materials and automobile materials, and also as medical materials and formed materials for sports and leisure like fishing rods, golf club shafts, badminton rackets, tennis rackets, etc.
Since the applications of prepregs are diversified like this, there are growing demands for thinner prepregs and prepregs using thermoplastic resins, and the necessity of improving the grade of prepregs, that is, producing more uniform prepregs with less thickness irregularity has grown. To meet these demands and requirements, it is necessary to open the reinforcing fiber bundle before impregnating it with a matrix resin when forming a prepreg, for reducing the thickness of the reinforcing fiber bundle and for letting the matrix resin sufficiently fill the clearances between the single fibers of the reinforcing fiber bundle.
In the production of a prepreg, one of the reasons why the opening of reinforcing fiber bundles is necessary is cost reduction. To produce a uniform and thin prepreg, generally thin reinforcing fiber bundles or reinforcing fiber bundles small in the number of component filaments are paralleled in one direction to produce a thin prepreg. However, since thin reinforcing fiber bundles or reinforcing fiber bundles small in the number of component filaments are generally expensive, it is advantageous to open reinforcing fiber bundles as thick as possible or as large as possible in the number of component filaments for forming a thin reinforcing fiber sheet and to manufacture a prepreg using the sheet. That is, if thick reinforcing fiber bundles or reinforcing fiber bundles large in the number of component filaments are opened to produce a thin prepreg with a conventional thickness, a desired prepreg can be produced at a lower cost.
Thus, the technique for efficiently opening the raw reinforcing fiber bundles is important among the techniques for producing a prepreg from reinforcing fiber bundles. As methods for opening reinforcing fiber bundles, for example, the following techniques are known. or less for letting them run on a round rod or revolving roll vibrated in the axial direction (Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 56-43435) letting them run on a roll vibrated in the revolving axis direction for vibrating the reinforcing fiber bundles with tension (an example described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2-36236).
In such conventional methods, for example as shown in FIG. 6, the reinforcing fiber bundles 102 unwound from packages 101 to run in parallel to each other are fed through a comb 103, to be regulated in fiber bundle intervals, and pressed against a roller 105 vibrated in the axial direction by an excitation source 104, to rub the reinforcing fiber bundles 102 in the width direction for opening them.
Furthermore, the following techniques are also known. rods or revolving rolls arranged at angles of 30 to 90.degree. (Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-31823) direction into contact with reinforcing fiber bundles (Japanese Patent Laid
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Akase Daisaku
Hanano Tohru
Matsumae Hidetaka
Sekido Toshihide
Miller Austin R.
Toray Industries Inc.
Vanatta Amy B.
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