Method for producing prepreg and method for producing fiber-reinforced composite material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11806899-B2
Application number	US-201816494824-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 22, 2018
Priority date	Mar 22, 2017
Publication date	Nov 7, 2023
Grant date	Nov 7, 2023

Abstract

The present invention provides a technology in production of a prepreg and enhances the production efficiency, in which the technology allows the arrangement property and rectilinearity of reinforcing fibers to be well maintained and allows any resin to be applied stably at a high speed. A prepreg is produced by a method which includes: discharging a molten resin in planar form to form a resin film, and applying the resin film onto a reinforcing fiber sheet conveyed continuously, wherein the reinforcing fiber sheet is conveyed substantially in the horizontal direction, and wherein an angle made between the discharge direction of the resin and the conveyance direction of the reinforcing fiber sheet 1 a is 80° or less.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of producing a prepreg, comprising:
discharging a molten resin in planar form from a slit to form a resin film, and forming a film-shaped object in a space into which the molten resin is discharged,
applying said resin film onto a reinforced fiber sheet conveyed continuously,
wherein said reinforced fiber sheet is conveyed substantially in the horizontal direction,
wherein an angle made between the discharge direction of the molten resin and the conveyance direction of said reinforced fiber sheet is 80° or less; and
wherein an air flow is applied to the edge portion of said film-shaped object formed in the space in the width direction from a front of the film-shaped object so that the edge portion of the resin film can be expanded when said reinforced fiber sheet is coated with said resin film, and
wherein a distance between a center of a discharge line and said reinforcing fiber sheet is 3 mm or more and 18 mm or less; and
wherein a viscosity of the molten resin is 21 Pa·s or less.

2. The method of producing a prepreg according to claim 1 , wherein, using two or more coating heads, both faces of said reinforced fiber sheet are coated with a substance selected from the group consisting of the molten resin; a mixture of the molten resin and an additive; and an additive.

3. The method of producing a prepreg according to claim 1 , wherein, using two or more coating heads, said reinforced fiber sheet is coated with two or more kinds of resins.

4. The method of producing a prepreg according to claim 1 , wherein said reinforced fiber sheet is coated with and then impregnated with said resin film.

5. The method of producing a prepreg according claim 1 , wherein another air flow is applied from the front of said film shaped object to the whole face of the film-shaped object in such a manner that the position where the film-shaped object comes in contact with the reinforcing fiber sheet is brought nearer to a coating section side.

6. The method of producing a prepreg according claim 1 , wherein the conveyance speed of the reinforcing fiber sheet and the prepreg is 10 m/minute to 100 m/minute.

7. A method of producing a fiber-reinforced composite material, comprising:
obtaining a prepreg by the method of producing a prepreg according to claim 1 ; and then
curing said prepreg.

Assignees

• Toray Industries

Inventors

• Aoki Junichi
• Ochi Takashi
• Nishino So
• Enzaki Satoshi
• Yamashita Takaaki

Classifications

• B29B11/16 Primary

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

• B29B15/122 Primary

  with a matrix in liquid form, e.g. as melt, solution or latex · CPC title

• B29C70/06

  Fibrous reinforcements only · CPC title

• C08J5/24

  Impregnating materials with prepolymers which can be polymerised in situ, e.g. manufacture of prepregs · CPC title

• C08J5/04

  Reinforcing macromolecular compounds with loose or coherent fibrous material · CPC title