Carbon fiber nonwoven composite

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10406790-B2
Application number	US-201615379968-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2016
Priority date	Dec 17, 2015
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced nonwoven composites having a wide variety of uses (e.g., leisure goods, aerospace, electronics, equipment, energy generation, mass transport, automotive parts, marine, construction, defense, sports and/or the like) are provided. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite includes a plurality of carbon fibers and a polymer matrix. The plurality of carbon fibers have an average fiber length from about 50 mm to about 125 mm. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite comprises a theoretical void volume from about 0% to about 10%.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1. A fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite, comprising:
a plurality of carbon fibers, said plurality of carbon fibers having an average fiber length from about 50 mm to about 125 mm, wherein the carbon fibers comprise from about 40% to about 60% by weight of the composite; and
a polymer matrix comprising a plurality of polymeric staple fibers, wherein the polymeric staple fibers comprise from about 40% to about 60% by weight of the composite,
wherein the fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite has a composite density from about 3 g/cm 3 to about 5 g/cm 3 and comprises a theoretical void volume from about 0% to about 10%.

2. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of carbon fibers comprise uncrimped carbon fibers.

3. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite comprises a theoretical void volume from about 0% to about 7%.

4. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of carbon fibers comprises a linear mass density from about 0.1 dtex to about 1.0 dtex.

5. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of polymeric staple fibers comprises at least one of a polyester, a polycarbonate, a copolyester, a polyamide, a polyphenylene sulfone, an engineering polymer, or any combination thereof.

6. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 5 , wherein the plurality of polymeric staple fibers comprises a polyester.

7. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of polymeric staple fibers comprises an average length from about 1 mm to about 100 mm.

8. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of polymeric staple fibers comprises a linear mass density from about 1.0 dtex to about 3.0 dtex.

9. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite comprises a basis weight from about 500 gsm to about 5000 gsm.

10. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite comprises an average thickness from about 1 mm to about 3 mm.

11. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite comprises one or more of the following: a tensile modulus from about 15 GPa to about 50 GPa; a tensile strength from about 140 MPa to about 600 MPa; a flexural modulus from about 15 GPa to about 50 GPa; and a flexural strength from about 290 MPa, to about 465 MPa.

12. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of carbon fibers includes (i) a first group of carbon fibers aligned in a first direction in a first plane and (ii) a second group of carbon fibers aligned in a second direction in a second plane, and wherein the second direction is located from 20° to 90° relative to the first direction.

13. The fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber-reinforced nonwoven composite consists of the plurality of carbon fibers and the polymeric matrix, wherein the polymeric matrix comprises a polyethylene terephthalate accounting for about 40% to about 60% by weight of the composite.

Assignees

• Avintiv Specialty Materials Inc

Inventors

• Hunt Nicholas Peter
• Carroll Michael Scott
• Guerrero Barberena Daniel I
• Moody Iii Ralph A

Classifications

• D04H13/001

  Making non-woven fabrics from staple fibres, filaments or yarns, bonded to at least one web-like material, e.g. woven, knitted non-woven fabric, paper, leather, during consolidation · CPC title

• D04H1/74

  the fibres being orientated, e.g. in parallel {(anisotropic fleeces)} · CPC title

• D04H1/70

  characterised by the method of forming fleeces or layers, e.g. reorientation of fibres · CPC title

• D04H1/46

  by needling or like operations to cause entanglement of fibres (D04H1/45 takes precedence; needling machines D04H18/00) · CPC title

• D04H1/435

  Polyesters · CPC title