A method of cosmetically altering a fiberglass piece comprising having a graphical element disposed on a layer of textile fabric. An outer layer of a curable gel-coat is applied to a mold for the cosmetically altered fiberglass piece. At least one intermediate layer of textile is then applied over the outer layer, the textile comprising a graphical element disposed adjacent to the outer layer. An inner layer is then applied to the intermediate layer, the inner layer providing structural support to the fiberglass piece. A bonding agent is then applied to wet out the outer layer, the intermediate layer, and the inner layer, thereby resulting in an assembly of a wet out three-layer combination, the curing of which results in the cosmetically altered fiberglass piece.

The present invention relates to a method for assembling particles having a long axis, a short axis and an average aspect ratio of 10-10,000. The method includes agitating a combination of a first solution, a second solution and the particles in any order to form a mixture wherein one of the first solution and the second solution is in the form of droplets dispersed in the other of the first solution and the second solution and the long axis of the particles is longer than a diameter of the droplets in the mixture, and continuing the agitation until the particles assemble into aggregates of particles with at least 30% of the particles aligned in parallel along the long axis. Aggregate or aggregate composites form by the method are also described.

According to some aspects, a method of additive fabrication is provided wherein a plurality of layers of material are formed on a build platform, the method comprising forming a layer of material in contact with a substrate and further in contact with either a previously formed layer of material or the build platform, the substrate being an actinically transparent, flexible, composite material, and subsequent to the forming of the layer of the material, actively separating the layer of material from the substrate.

Polyurethane floor covering products are formed from a web layer containing at least 30% by weight fibers. A cooled polyurethane foam formulation which includes at least one polyisocyanate, water and at least one polyol having an equivalent weight of at least 500 is applied to the web layer. The wetted web layer is then compressed to mechanically wet out the fibers, gauged and heated to cure the foam formulation.

The present invention relates to a floor mat comprising a substrate layer, a gel layer and a cover layer, wherein said substrate layer, said gel layer and said cover layer have a substantially planar shape, and wherein said gel layer is coupled in between said substrate layer and said cover layer, and wherein the cover layer comprises a plurality of deformations, which deformations protrude at least partly towards the center of the gel layer. In further aspects, the invention relates to a floor mat wherein the thickness of the gel layer and the thickness of the substrate layer are related according to a ratio of between 1:20 and 20:20, as well as to methods for manufacturing a floor mat.

A process for fiberglass recovered from recycling of windmill or similar products at the end of lifecycle converted into a non-woven fiberglass mat and applying predetermined sizing. Sizing is applied to this fiberglass mat by spraying silane sizing on both sides of the mat. Recycled fiberglass content can be operably varied. Polyurethane resin can be sprayed onto either the recycled non-woven fiberglass mat alone or on a combination of recycled fiberglass mat and virgin fiberglass mat. This resin-impregnated mat is then placed onto a heated tool in a compression molding machine. Exemplary application of the recycled glass fiber mat is in electric vehicle composite battery cover and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle composite battery cover.

Certain configurations are described herein of a thermoplastic sheet or article comprising a plurality of porous layers coupled to each other. In one configuration, the thermoplastic article may comprise a core layer, a first layer disposed on one surface of the core layer and a second layer disposed on another surface of the core layer. In some instances, each of the core layer, the first layer and the second layer may comprises a web of open celled structures formed by a plurality of reinforcing materials bonded together with a thermoplastic material and optionally may also include a lofting agent. The lofting capacity in different layers can be selected or tuned to provide desired properties.

A method for manufacturing a component includes a) providing a first, plate-shaped semi-finished product and a second semi-finished product, the first semi-finished product including a first thermosetting reactive resin with non-directionally inserted long-stranded fibers, the second semi-finished product including an oriented network of endless fibers, the endless fibers having a mean length l of at least 80 mm, and the long-stranded fibers having a mean length k which is at least 30 mm shorter than that of the endless fibers; b) placing the second semi-finished product on top of the first semi-finished product so as to form a semi-finished product group; c) inserting the semi-finished group into a first molding part of a multi-part mold of a press, the semi-finished group covering between 70% and 95% of the first molding part after the insertion; d) extrusion forming of the semi-finished product group by the mold resulting in the component; and e) removing the component.

A method of manufacturing a composite part comprising a core and at least one skin region formed of a low friction UHMWPE skin polymer attached thereto, by: a) providing a mold with a heatable mold cavity; b) loading into the mold cavity UHMWPE powder followed by a core element having a surface with at least one contacting region provided with a plurality of anchoring sites, loading onto the core element, a layer of UHMWPE in powder form adjacent the contacting region, and applying a heat pressing step to melt the skin polymer powder to form a molten skin polymer matrix, and cooling to solidify the skin polymer matrix forming a skin region mechanically engaged into anchoring sites of the core element.

Provided is a resin molded body including: a resin porous body that contains a carbon fiber nonwoven fabric and has continuous voids; and a skin layer formed of a thermosetting resin composition. In this resin molded body, the continuous voids have a porosity of 50% by volume to 97% by volume, the skin layer has a porosity of 5% by volume or less, and the thermosetting resin composition is embedded at a depth of 50 m to 1,000 m on the resin porous body side of the resin molded body. Also provided is a method of producing a fiber-reinforced resin molded body, the method including, in the order mentioned: the preform forming step of forming a preform using a resin porous body that has continuous voids and a flexural modulus of 10 MPa or more based on the ISO178 method (1993); the sealing step of forming a closed space that encloses the preform with a molding die and/or a film; the injection step of injecting a thermosetting resin composition into the closed space; and the curing step of maintaining a temperature equal to or higher than a curing temperature of the thermosetting resin composition. This method provides a resin molded body that contains a porous structure and is excellent in surface quality and productivity.