Hybrid woven textile for composite reinforcement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10683592-B2
Application number	US-201514824462-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 12, 2015
Priority date	Aug 13, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

A hybrid, woven textile material that can be used in the manufacturing of fiber-reinforced composite materials. The hybrid textile material is a woven fabric composed of unidirectional fibers interlaced with strips of non-woven fibers in a weaving pattern. In an embodiment, the hybrid textile material is porous or permeable with respect to liquid resins used in Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) processes and a preform formed from this textile material can be infused with liquid resins during such RTM processes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A woven fabric for composite reinforcement comprising:
unidirectional fiber tows arranged parallel to each other in a sheet-like formation; and
strips of nonwoven fibers interlaced with the unidirectional fiber tows in a weaving pattern,
wherein the unidirectional fiber tows are not attached to another layer, and each unidirectional fiber tow is comprised of a plurality of continuous fiber filaments, and
wherein each strip of nonwoven fibers is a self-supporting, single-layer material, which is not attached to another layer of fibers, and is comprised of randomly arranged and/or randomly oriented fibers.

2. The woven fabric of claim 1 having an areal weight of 50 gsm to 380 gsm.

3. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein each strip of nonwoven fibers has an areal weight of 2 gsm to 34 gsm.

4. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein each strip of nonwoven fibers has a width of approximately 5 mm to 40 mm.

5. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein each strip of nonwoven fibers has a thickness within the range of 10 μm-50 μm (or 0.01-0.05 mm).

6. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein each unidirectional fiber tow is comprised of 1000 to 100,000 fiber filaments.

7. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein the unidirectional fiber tows are formed from a high-strength material selected from the group consisting of: carbon, graphite, glass, quartz, alumina, zirconia, silicon carbide, aramid, high-modulus polyethylene (PE), polyester, poly-p-phenylene-benzobisoxazole (PBO), and combinations thereof.

8. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein the strips of nonwoven fibers comprise fibers made from a material selected from the group consisting of: carbon, glass, metals, quartz, polymers and copolymers thereof, and combinations thereof.

9. The woven fabric according to claim 8 , wherein said polymers are selected from: aramid, polyester, polyamide, polyphthalamide, polyamide-imide, polyarylsulfone, polysulfones, polyphenylene sulfone, polyaryletherketone, polyphenylene sulfide, elastomeric polyamide, polyphenylene ether, polyurethane, liquid crystal polymers (LCP), phenoxy, polyacrylonitrile, and acrylate polymers.

10. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein unidirectional fiber tows are comprised of carbon fibers and the strips of nonwoven fibers comprise randomly arranged and/or randomly oriented carbon fibers.

11. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein the strips of nonwoven fibers have a sufficient amount of binder to hold the fibers together but allow the strips to be permeable to liquid and gas.

12. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein the weaving pattern is selected from plain weave, satin weave, and twill weave.

13. The woven fabric of claim 1 , wherein the woven fabric is permeable to a liquid resin.

14. A preform adapted for receiving liquid resin in a liquid molding process comprising layers of reinforcement fibers laid up in a stacking arrangement, wherein at least one of the layers of reinforcement fibers is the woven fabric according to claim 1 .

15. A composite material comprising the woven fabric according to claim 1 impregnated or infused with a matrix resin.

Assignees

• Cytec Ind Inc

Inventors

• Blackburn Robert
• Hill Samuel Jestyn

Classifications

• B29B11/16

  comprising fillers or reinforcement {(non-woven fabrics per se D04H1/00, D04H3/00)} · CPC title

• D03D15/275

  Carbon fibres · CPC title

• D03D15/00

  Woven fabrics characterised by the material, structure or properties of the fibres, filaments, yarns, threads or other warp or weft elements used · CPC title

• D03D15/573

  Tensile strength · CPC title

• D03D15/46 Primary

  Flat yarns, e.g. tapes or films · CPC title