A laminated surface covering including a facing material made of vinyl and a backing material comprising a rubber component. The rubber component comprising at least a matrix of bonded rubber granules. A bonding material disposed between the facing material and the backing material. The facing material configured to melt at a temperature between 165° F. and 248° F. infiltrating the backing material thereby essentially encasing the rubber granules of the matrix and providing fire retardation and smoke suppression qualities.

A technique for stable, high-speed treatment of reinforcement fiber. In a state where a unidirectional fiber bundle is held between a supporting surface of a support and a pressing surface of a resonator ultrasonically vibrating in a pressing direction perpendicular to the supporting surface, a pressed part of the unidirectional fiber bundle pressed by the pressing surface is moved in a longitudinal direction of the unidirectional fiber bundle. By doing so, the unidirectional fiber bundle can be stably treated at high speed when the unidirectional fiber bundle is opened or impregnated with a resin.

A method of making a composite panel configured for use with a flooring assembly of a trailer includes providing a wood substrate, making an uncured fiber-reinforced coating, and applying the uncured fiber-reinforced coating onto a surface of the wood substrate. The method further includes curing the uncured fiber-reinforced coating after applying the uncured fiber-reinforced coating onto the surface of the wood substrate.

Illustrated and described are a method and a device for laminating a profiled fibre moulding with a thermoplastic film. The film is laminated onto a surface of the fibre moulding to be coated by heat and differential pressure. To improve the lamination of the fibre moulding and to achieve uniform lamination thicknesses over the entire fibre moulding, the method includes the following steps: fixing at least an edge of the fed film to a base plate, heating the film, deforming the film via a moulding tool, feeding the fibre moulding, joining the fibre moulding to the pre-formed film, and removing the laminated fibre moulding.

In a preferred embodiment, a composite panel with a smooth outer surface, ready for painting with or without addition of primer, may be created by constructing a panel layup assembly upon a mold, the panel layup assembly including a composite panel having a core and a resin formulation, and a release film between the mold and the composite panel, where a smooth release surface of the release film is in contact with the composite panel upon construction; initiating curing of the composite panel at a first temperature within a lowermost ten percent of a curing temperature range of the resin formulation; continuing curing of the composite panel at a second temperature above the lowermost ten percent of the curing temperature range; and completing curing of the composite panel at a third temperature below the second temperature.

A carbon fiber toothed structure has a body. The body is circular and has a toothed segment and at least one carbon fiber cloth. The toothed segment is formed on an outer periphery of the body. The at least one carbon fiber cloth is deposited on a front side and a rear side of the body from a center to the outer periphery of the body to cover the toothed segment. The body is made by stacking multiple circular carbon fiber cloths of different diameters with each other. Some of the carbon fiber cloths deposited in the body have smaller diameters than those of the others of the carbon fiber cloths to enable the center of the body being thicker than the outer periphery of the body. The toothed segment has two guiding inclined planes respectively deposited on the front side and the rear side of the body.

A continuous process for preparing insulation panels having thick (0.2 mm to 1 mm) metal facing panels and a fiber-reinforced polymer foam core is disclosed. In the process, a bottom metal facing panel (2) is continuously supplied. A mat (10) of reinforcing fibers and a foamable resin composition (19) are applied to the bottom facing panel. A flexible barrier layer (5) is applied atop the foamable resin composition, and the assembly is passed through nip rolls (12,13) to compress the assembly and force the resin composition into the fiber mat. An adhesive layer (4) and top metallic facing layer (1) are then applied on top of the flexible barrier layer, and the resulting assembly is gauged and cured by passing it through a double band laminator (11).

A method of producing an opened fiber bundle is in a space-saving manner. The method of continuously producing an opened fiber bundle for a cleaning member, includes the steps of (a.sub.1) providing (i) first nip rolls, (ii) second nip rolls, (iii) third nip rolls, and (iv) an air feeder; (a.sub.2) conveying a fiber bundle using the first nip rolls and the second nip rolls to apply a tensile force to the fiber bundle; (a.sub.3) conveying the fiber bundle using the second nip rolls and the third nip rolls to relax the fiber bundle, thereby forming a belt-shaped fiber bundle; and (a.sub.4) blowing air from the air feeder in a direction intersecting with the conveying direction of the first belt-shaped fiber bundle.

A thermoplastic product includes a fabric-based reinforcing sheet and a polymerized thermoplastic material. The fabric-based reinforcing sheet is wound about a mandrel to form a plurality of layers having a cross-sectional shape that corresponds to the mandrel. The fabric-based reinforcing sheet includes a plurality of fiber bundles, which may have a bidirectional orientation or configuration. A polymerized thermoplastic material is disposed within each layer of the fabric-based reinforcing sheet. The polymerized thermoplastic material bonds each layer of the fabric-based reinforcing sheet to an adjacent layer.

In a preferred embodiment, a composite panel with a smooth outer surface, ready for painting with or without addition of primer, may be created by constructing a panel layup assembly upon a mold, the panel layup assembly including a composite panel having a core and a resin formulation, and a release film between the mold and the composite panel, where a smooth release surface of the release film is in contact with the composite panel upon construction; initiating curing of the composite panel at a first temperature within a lowermost ten percent of a curing temperature range of the resin formulation; continuing curing of the composite panel at a second temperature above the lowermost ten percent of the curing temperature range; and completing curing of the composite panel at a third temperature below the second temperature.