The disclosure relates to acoustic panels and methods for preparing them. The disclosure relates more particularly to panels having a nonwoven facing and to methods for making such panels. One aspect of the disclosure is a method for preparing an acoustic panel comprising providing a base structure. The base structure has one or more edges, an outward major surface having a total area, and an inward major surface opposing the outward major surface. The base structure has a noise reduction coefficient (NRC) of at least about 0.3. The method includes disposing directly against the outward major surface of the base structure a sprayable mixture comprising a plurality of fibers, one or more binders, and a dispersive medium. The method includes drying the disposed mixture to provide a facing layer disposed on the outward major surface of the base structure, the facing layer having an exterior major surface opposing the outward major surface of the base structure.

A method is of designing a composite material that includes stacked reinforced fiber substrates and has a thickness-varying part whose thickness in a stacking direction changes from a large thickness to a small thickness. The method includes setting, as a cut substrate, the reinforced fiber substrate that has the drop-off portion and is positioned between a base substrate and a cover substrate in the stacking direction; performing stress analysis on the base substrate, the cut substrate, and the cover substrate to calculate an evaluation value concerning stress on the cut substrate; and setting, as the cut substrate, a reinforced fiber substrate in the thickness-varying part, based on the calculated evaluation value.

A carbon fiber sheet molding compound expander system incorporating a high speed cutter and an expander. Carbon fiber tow is cut to desired length, and the carbon fiber chips are delivered to the expander to expand and randomize the chips by transvectors of the expander. The expander opens up the chips in a way that allows resin material to contact individual carbon fibers.

A method for forming composite materials and associated apparatuses is presented, including positioning at least one electronic component on a lay-up surface. The method also includes positioning a composite on the lay-up surface, where the composite comprises resin and fibers. Additionally, the method includes causing a flow of the resin between the lay-up surface and the fibers. Yet further, the method includes curing the resin to form a cured resin, where the electronic component and the fibers are located in the cured resin. The composite material includes a resin having a shape based on a surface of a lay-up system. Additionally, the composite material includes fibers contained within the resin. Further, the composite materials includes at least one electronic component. The electronic component of the composite material is located in the resin based on a flow of the resin around the electronic component on the surface of the lay-up.

A method of preparing an aerogel composite, which includes a wetting pretreatment step for suppressing the generation of air bubbles in a fibrous material such as a mat, and a step of impregnating the fibrous material with a precursor by injecting the precursor in a vessel under a reduced pressure. The method provides a high quality, high insulation aerogel-impregnated composite without air bubbles.

Sound-attenuating mufflers and muffler inserts, and systems and uses of such mufflers and muffler inserts. Continuous fiberglass roving is fed to a pneumatic jet head which fluffs the roving and presents the fluffed roving to a delivery wand at the exit end of the jet head. The delivery wand is moved along a predetermined three-dimensional path such that the wand delivery tip travels along a predetermined three-dimensional path inside a mold while-depositing fluffed fiberglass strands into the mold along the predetermined path. A terminal end portion of a liquid resin conduit is mounted to the fiberglass-dispensing wand, as part of the delivery tip, and drip-feeds liquid resin onto the fiberglass as the fiberglass is being deposited in the mold. The undulating, up and down movement of the delivery tip produces a wave-like undulating pattern in the appearance of the rovings in the resulting molded product.

Described is a method for producing a fiber preform by deposition of reinforcing fiber bundles onto a surface including: supplying at least one continuous strand of reinforcing fibers provided with a binder to a deposition head, spreading the at least one strand in a spreader unit and conveying using a first conveying device to a longitudinal splitting device, cutting the at least one strand in the longitudinal splitting device along the longitudinal extension thereof into at least two partial strands by means of a splitting element, conveying the partial strands by means of a second conveying device to a cut-to-length unit, cutting the partial strands by means of the cut-to-length unit into reinforcing fiber bundles, and depositing the reinforcing fiber bundles onto a surface and/or reinforcing fiber bundles deposited on the surface and fixing the reinforcing fiber bundles to form the fiber preform.

A deposition device for controlled deposition of reinforcing fiber bundles on a surface, including a deposition head and a controllable positioning unit, means for providing at least one strand of reinforcing fibers provided with a binder, and a first conveying device, arranged on the deposition head conveys the at least one strand to the deposition head, wherein, when viewed in the conveying direction, means for spreading the at least one strand are arranged on the deposition head, and the deposition head has a second conveying device arranged after the first conveying device, a longitudinal splitting device, arranged between the first and second conveying devices, with at least one splitting element for splitting the at least one strand along the longitudinal extension thereof into two or more partial strands, and a cut-to-length unit arranged after the second conveying device for cutting-to-length the two or more partial strands into fiber bundles.

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media for manufacturing a boat part made of a fiberglass, the fiberglass including a resin and a glass, using a mold and according to a specification that defines a desired quantity of the fiberglass to apply to the mold. In one embodiment, a system includes an applicator configured to apply the fiberglass to the mold, a resin transporter configured to supply the resin to the applicator, and a glass transporter configured to supply the glass to the applicator. A control module is configured to make a comparison in real-time between an actual quantity of the fiberglass applied by the applicator and the desired quantity of the fiberglass to apply to the mold, and to calculate a remaining quantity of the fiberglass to apply to the mold to thereby achieve the desired quantity. The control module is configured to cause an indicator device to indicate in real-time the remaining quantity of the fiberglass to apply to the mold.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a shaped product constituted by a fiber-reinforced composite material including reinforcing fibers and a thermoplastic resin. The shaped product maintains isotropy of the fibers to the end thereof even if press-molded under conditions in which charge ratio of a prepreg to a die is low. Specifically, the method includes using a specific prepreg obtained by impregnating the reinforcing fibers with thermoplastic resin, and molding-processing the prepreg under specific conditions.