A blade for a hockey stick which can readily absorb impact from the puck, and can allow the user to feel the puck on the blade in contrast to conventional carbon fiber blades. The blade can include a blade member integrally formed of composite material having discontinuous fibers bonded within thermosetting resin. The blade member can have a blade periphery surrounding a central blade region. The central blade region can have a plurality of openings arranged in a pattern to form series of elongate criss crossing ribs that extend between and connect different sides of the blade periphery to each other. The fibers in the blade periphery can be in a generally jumbled orientation, and the fibers in the central blade region can be positioned within the ribs in a manner wherein each rib contains a plurality of fibers that substantially extend in said each rib's elongate direction.

A reinforcing article (10, 100, 200) includes a porous substrate layer (105, 205) and a plurality of parallel first continuous fiber elements (12, 114, 212) spaced apart from each other and extending along a first direction and fixed to the porous substrate (105, 205). Each first continuous fiber element (12, 114, 212) includes a plurality of parallel and co-extending continuous fibers (22, 122, 222) embedded in a thermoplastic resin (24, 124, 224).

The present invention relates to a novel process for the production of novel fiber-reinforced profile materials comprising a rigid foam core, in particular a PMI foam core. In particular, the present invention relates to a novel process which can be carried out in two variants, a short Pul-press process and a Pul-shape process. One step here produces a fiber-reinforced profile material and simultaneously inserts the rigid foam core into same. The same step moreover ensures very good binding of the rigid foam core to the fiber-reinforced profile material.

A fiber structure includes a blank portion formed as a single part by three-dimensional weaving between a first plurality of yarn layers and a second plurality of yarn layers, the blank portion corresponding to all or part of a fiber reinforcement preform for a part made of composite material. Outside the blank portion, the fiber structure includes one or more two-dimensional fabric layers, each two-dimensional fabric layer grouping together the yarns of a single layer belonging to at least the first plurality of yarn layers and situated outside the blank portion.

The present invention concerns a reinforcing material comprising at least one fibrous reinforcement associated on at least one of its faces with a thermoplastic porous layer, said thermoplastic porous layer(s) representing at most 10% of the total mass of the reinforcing material, preferably from 0.5 to 10% of the total mass of the reinforcing material, and more preferably from 2 to 6% of the total mass of the reinforcing material, characterized in that said thermoplastic porous layer or each of said thermoplastic porous layers present comprises a so-called reactive thermoplastic polymer or consists of one or more reactive thermoplastic polymers, a reactive thermoplastic polymer carrying NH2 functions in an amount greater than 0.15 meq/g of reactive thermoplastic polymer and/or carrying COOH functions in an amount greater than 0.20 meq/g of reactive thermoplastic polymer.

The invention also concerns processes for manufacturing such reinforcement materials, preforms, processes for manufacturing composite parts and composite parts using such reinforcement materials.

A method for processing a fiber-reinforced resin material is disclosed. A fiber-reinforced resin material is disposed between an upper die having a projection and a lower die having a recess corresponding to the projection. The fiber-reinforced resin material includes reinforced fibers having alternately intersecting warp yarns and weft yarns and are impregnated with a thermoplastic resin. The fiber-reinforced resin material is then heated to soften the thermoplastic resin, and the upper die and the lower die are placed close to each other in order to insert the projection into a gap between the warp yarns and the weft yarns of the reinforced fibers such that the gap between the warp yarns and the weft yarns is expanded to form a through hole.

A method to generate a non-woven fabric includes prearranging at least one thread guide arranged to guide at least one textile thread, prearranging moving means for actuating the thread guide according to at least one degree of freedom, prearranging at least one rigid support and handling each thread guide by the moving means for arranging at least one first portion of each textile thread along at least one first trajectory _1 on each rigid support. Each thread guide is handled by the moving means for arranging at least one second portion of each textile thread along at least one second trajectory _2 on each rigid support. Each second trajectory _2 overlaps with each first trajectory _1 at least at one intersection point P_i, joining each second portion of each textile thread with each first portion of each textile thread at each intersection point P_i.

The present application pertains to components such as tank covers with increased slip resistance and processes for making such components. Generally, a patterned release fabric is employed in a manner such that a formed fiber reinforced plastic component has a textured pattern on at least one surface to increase slip resistance.