A method for molding composite material such as a spar formed with a curved corner part is provided with: a first shaping step of shaping a laminate so that the board thickness of the laminate is reduced from the outside of the corner part toward the inside thereof, the laminate having the corner part curved at a first bending angle and comprising fiber sheets laminated to each other; and a second shaping step of curving the corner part of the laminate to form a second bending angle smaller than the first bending angle, and shaping the laminate so that the board thickness of the laminate is reduced from the inside of the corner part toward the outside thereof.

A thermoset composite and method for producing the same is provided. The method includes: providing at least one surface veil layer that includes a fibrous layer saturated with a water based binder, and one or more composite constituent layers; applying an amount of thermoset resin to the composite constituent layers; arranging the surface veil layer and the composite constituent layers in a stack; and producing the thermoset composite by pulling the composite constituent layers and the surface veil layer through a forming die.

A paint roller manufacturing system and method are described. In an embodiment, an inner strip of material and an outer strip of material are wound about a mandrel in offset relation. The inner strip of material and the outer strip of material each comprise material that results in a final paint roller which shrinks by less than 2.5 percent of the final paint roller axial length, or which has shrinkage that varies by less +/0.1%, upon hardening and setting. An adhesive is applied to at least a portion of the outer strip as it is wound about the mandrel. A length of fabric is wound about at least the outer strip to form a paint roller tube, and compression is applied to the paint roller tube while advancing the paint roller tube in a direction parallel to the mandrel. A precision measuring or sensing device is used to control a cutting device causing the cutting device to cut the advancing paint roller tube into pre-selected lengths prior to the paint roller tube hardening and setting.

A paint roller manufacturing system and method are described. In an embodiment, an inner strip of material and an outer strip of material are wound about a mandrel in offset relation. The inner strip of material and the outer strip of material each comprise material that results in a final paint roller which shrinks by less than 2.5 percent of the final paint roller axial length, or which has shrinkage that varies by less +/0.1%, upon hardening and setting. An adhesive is applied to at least a portion of the outer strip as it is wound about the mandrel. A length of fabric is wound about at least the outer strip to form a paint roller tube, and compression is applied to the paint roller tube while advancing the paint roller tube in a direction parallel to the mandrel. A precision measuring or sensing device is used to control a cutting device causing the cutting device to cut the advancing paint roller tube into pre-selected lengths prior to the paint roller tube hardening and setting.

A deployable Kiriform flexure includes first and second sections. The first section of the Kiriform flexure includes a plurality of curved fins arranged about a central axis. The second section of the Kiriform flexure includes a plurality of curved fins arranged about a central axis. Each fin of the second section is joined with a fin of the first section such that the first and second sections share a common central axis in a configuration that produces out-of-plane elastic buckling of the fins to actuate the Kiriform flexure from a substantially flat structure that extends substantially only in two dimensions orthogonal to the central axis to an expanded structure extending substantially in a third dimension parallel to the central axis when at least one of the first and second sections is rotated relative to the other section.

In an embodiment, a paint roller manufacturing system and method uses a fabric-coating applicator to apply a fabric adhesive onto a portion of a perforated paint roller cover fabric material having a plurality of perforations through which adhesive may flow, and into the plurality of perforations and into interstitial spaces of the fabric material, to yield a length of coated fabric. An inner strip and an outer strip are wound about a mandrel in offset relation. A strip-coating applicator is used to apply a strip adhesive to the outer strip as it is wound about the mandrel. Simultaneously with the step of applying the strip adhesive to the outer strip, a portion of the coated paint roller fabric material is received at the outer strip and the length of coated fabric is wound about at least the outer strip to form a paint roller tube.

A paint roller manufacturing system includes a cover dispenser for continuously dispensing a windable width of paint roller cover fabric, a fabric supporting and advancing device for supporting the fabric and maintaining a width-wise dimension of the paint roller cover fabric as the fabric advances, a fabric coating applicator for applying a coating to the back side of the paint roller cover fabric while the fabric supporting and advancing device maintains the fabric in a width-wise dimension, and a compressing roller positioned downstream of the fabric coating applicator and configured to apply a compressive force on the coating after it has been applied to the back side of the paint roller cover fabric and while the fabric is supported by the fabric supporting and advancing device. In two-strip embodiments, first and second strip dispensers continuously dispense a first and second windable width of strip material. A guide system guides the first and second strip coming from the first and second strip dispensers to be wound about a mandrel and guides the coated paint roller cover fabric from the fabric supporting device to be wound about the first and second strips. An adhesive applicator is configured to apply adhesive on substantially all of the outer side of the first and second windable strips and positioned to apply adhesive to the outer side of the first and second windable strips upstream of a location where the coated paint roller cover fabric is wound about the first and second strips.

A method of making a composite pipe has the steps of (a) providing one or more sources of composite tape, the composite tape being formed of reinforcing fibres embedded in a thermoplastic matrix; (b) helically winding the composite tape(s) around a cylinder under the application of heat to form a pipe comprising fused, concentric layers of adjacently positioned, helically-wound composite tape; (c) scanning a region where edges of wound composite tape are expected to be, to generate scanning information; (d) controlling the gap between further adjacent windings by (1) using the scanning information to determine wound composite tape edge position(s), and (2) using the determined wound composite tape edge position(s) to adjust the winding process during winding; (e) repeating steps (c) and (d). The invention also relates to a corresponding apparatus for making a composite pipe.

A method of manufacture of a product from a composite material is described, the method including winding a material onto a mandrel, monitoring the material, as it is wound onto the mandrel, to ascertain at least one dimension of the material being wound, and monitoring the mandrel as the material is wound thereon to ascertain the weight of the material being wound, and controlling the winding of the material onto the mandrel to take into account variations in the material being wound using the at least one dimension and the weight values derived during the monitoring. An apparatus suitable for use in the method is also described.

Provided is a sheet winding molding method including winding a thermosetting prepreg around a substrate while heating the thermosetting prepreg, wherein the time taken to form a next layer of the thermosetting prepreg on a layer of the wound thermosetting prepreg is shorter than the gel time of the prepreg at the temperature of the wound thermosetting prepreg. The sheet winding molding method is advantageous not only in that the method has excellent productivity, but also in that a molded article having excellent physical properties, such as excellent interlaminar shear strength, can be obtained by the method.