Blended thermoplastic and thermoset materials and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9840061-B2
Application number	US-201514830243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2015
Priority date	Sep 4, 2013
Publication date	Dec 12, 2017
Grant date	Dec 12, 2017

Abstract

Structural panels and methods of making composite material for such structural panels may include applying a resin to a nonwoven fibrous web, where the nonwoven fibrous web includes a combination of glass fibers and polymer fibers. The web may be dried at a first stage temperature at or below a curing temperature of the resin for a time sufficient to substantially dry but not substantially cure the resin. The web may be laminated at a second stage temperature sufficient to fully cure the resin to produce a composite material. The second stage temperature may be above the melting point of the polymer fibers, and the resin may cause the composite material to retain a substantially rigid shape upon completion of the laminating operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A structural panel comprising:
a core material;
a nonwoven laminated material, wherein a first surface of the nonwoven laminated material is coupled with a first surface of the core material, and wherein the nonwoven laminated material comprises a nonwoven fibrous web including a combination of glass fibers and polymer fibers and a B-staged resin characterized by a curing temperature above the melting temperature of the polymer fibers; and
a reinforcement layer coupled with the second surface of the nonwoven laminated material, wherein a gel coat saturates the reinforcement layer.

2. The structural panel of claim 1 , further comprising an additional layer of the nonwoven laminated material coupled with a second surface of the core material opposite the first surface of the core material.

3. The structural panel of claim 1 , wherein the gel coat is applied to the second surface of the nonwoven laminated material opposite the first surface of the nonwoven laminated material.

4. The structural panel of claim 1 , wherein the gel coat extends beyond the thickness of the reinforcement layer from the nonwoven laminated material.

5. The structural panel of claim 1 , wherein the nonwoven laminated material comprises at least two layers of the nonwoven fibrous web laminated together.

6. The structural panel of claim 5 , wherein at least one layer of the at least two layers of the nonwoven fibrous web has a fiber directional orientation orthogonal to at least one other layer of the nonwoven fibrous web.

7. The structural panel of claim 1 , wherein the nonwoven fibrous web is characterized by a machine direction to cross machine direction tensile ratio of below or about 2 to 1.

8. A structural panel comprising:
a core material;
a nonwoven laminated material, wherein a first surface of the nonwoven laminated material is coupled with a first surface of the core material, and wherein the nonwoven laminated material comprises a nonwoven fibrous web including a combination of glass fibers and polymer fibers and a B-staged resin characterized by a curing temperature above the melting temperature of the polymer fibers; and
a reinforcement layer coupled with the second surface of the nonwoven laminated material, wherein a gel coat saturates the reinforcement layer, and wherein the gel coat extends beyond the thickness of the reinforcement layer from the nonwoven laminated material.

9. The structural panel of claim 8 , further comprising an additional layer of the nonwoven laminated material coupled with a second surface of the core material opposite the first surface of the core material.

10. The structural panel of claim 8 , wherein the gel coat is applied to the second surface of the nonwoven laminated material opposite the first surface of the nonwoven laminated material.

11. The structural panel of claim 8 , wherein the nonwoven laminated material comprises at least two layers of the nonwoven fibrous web laminated together.

12. The structural panel of claim 11 , wherein at least one layer of the at least two layers of the nonwoven fibrous web has a fiber directional orientation orthogonal to at least one other layer of the nonwoven fibrous web.

13. The structural panel of claim 8 , wherein the nonwoven fibrous web is characterized by a machine direction to cross machine direction tensile ratio of below or about 2 to 1.

Assignees

• Johns Manville

Inventors

• Jaffee Alan Michael

Classifications

• B32B2262/101

  Glass fibres · CPC title

• B32B37/04

  characterised by the partial melting of at least one layer · CPC title

• B32B5/26

  another layer {next to it} also being fibrous or filamentary {(relative arrangement of fibres or filaments of different layers B32B5/12)} · CPC title

• B32B5/022 Primary

  Non-woven fabric · CPC title

• B32B2250/02

  2 layers · CPC title