A method for creating a fan cowl with a hollow hat stiffener includes pressing a resin film between a non-crimp fabric (NCF) and a release poly-film to create a resin-fabric sheet. The method further includes cutting the resin-fabric sheet to a pre-determined shape to create at least one of a first resin-fabric preform, a second resin-fabric preform, and a third resin-fabric preform, draping at least the first resin-fabric preform over a tool to create an outer layer of the fan cowl, setting a mandrel over the outer layer, and draping the second resin-fabric preform over at least a portion of the mandrel and at least a portion of the first resin-fabric preform to form the hollow hat stiffener having a geometry similar to a shape of the mandrel.

A resin supply material used for press molding or vacuum-pressure molding of a fiber-reinforced resin, the resin supply material including a continuous porous material and a thermosetting resin, wherein an average pore cross-sectional area ratio P expressed by formula (I) is 1.1 or more:
P=AII/AI  (I) AI: average pore cross-sectional area in region I AII: average pore cross-sectional area in region II Region I: region occupying 10% of total volume of continuous porous material from surface layer on both surfaces thereof Region II: whole region of continuous porous material.

A method for forming a bicycle frame component made of thermoplastic composite laminates has: a shell forming step: manufacturing multiple shells by compression molding; an overlapping step: overlapping two corresponding connecting margins of each two of the multiple shells to form an overlapping section of the two of the multiple shells and deploying a supporting unit within the multiple shells for supporting; a hot compressing connection step: heating and compressing the multiple shells to diffuse polymers of the multiple shells and to turn the multiple overlapping sections into multiple fusion areas for connection; a supporting unit removal step: removing the supporting unit disposed within the bicycle frame component.

A textile fiber-composite material precursor and method for producing a component from fiber-composite material. Aircraft components can be produced from polymer fiber-composite materials, a matrix of which can be a high-performance plastics material such as polyether ketone ketone wherein a reinforcement of a non-crimp fabric of carbon fibers is embedded. Large-area non-crimp fabrics and large-area polymer films can be consolidated while being heated and pressed forming simple components. The flexible textile fiber-composite material precursor includes a stack of woven-fabric tiers from a polymer and of non-crimp fabric tiers from carbon fibers. Since both components are capable of draping, the fiber-composite material precursor can be deposited over a large area on curved shape-imparting surfaces and subsequently be consolidated under pressure and heated to form the fiber-composite material.

A hybrid preform comprises a bundle of unidirectionally aligned fibers, and at least one partial cut that extends part of the way, but not all of the way, through a transverse cross section of the bundle of fibers at least one location along the length of the bundle.

The invention pertains to a method of manufacturing a product from used woven or knitted textile comprising vegetable or animal fibres, in particular cotton or wool, the method comprising the steps of: collecting the used woven or knitted textile, granulating the used woven or knitted textile into fibres having an average fiber length of between 3.6 mm and 5.5 mm, mixing the granulated used woven or knitted textile with a thermoplastic fiber based binder, and forming a nonwoven mat from the mixture of the granulated used woven or knitted textile and fiber based binder, the nonwoven mat comprising 59% to 75% of vegetable fiber, or alternatively the nonwoven mat comprising at least 80% animal fibres. The invention also pertains to a product produced by said method.

Composite structures and methods of forming composite structures are provided. The composite structures can include one or more composite structure components. Each composite structure component is formed from a composite panel that includes one or more sheets of material. The sheets of material include a thermoplastic material and a plurality of reinforcing fibers. A composite panel can be formed in three dimensions to form a composite structure component. Multiple composite structure components can be fused to one another to form a composite structure. In addition, each composite structure component and the composite structure formed therefrom can include an aperture. An interior volume can be formed between adjacent composite structure components. Methods for forming a composite structure can include a step of simultaneously molding and fusing composite structure components.

A method of manufacturing a design-imprinted molded article comprises providing a glass mold of a desired shape, that further comprises a desired shaped concave and a desired shaped rim, providing a plurality of sheets of polyacrylonitrile fibers, providing at least one design cutout of polyacrylonitrile fibers, overlaying the plurality of sheets on the surface of the desired shaped concave and desired shaped rim, overlaying the design cutout on the plurality of sheets, and applying high heat to the glass mold.

An apparatus for molding a part includes a plunger cavity, a plunger, and a mold cavity, wherein the plunger is oriented out-of-plane with respect to a major surface of the mold cavity, and first and second vents couples to respective first and second portions of the mold cavity. In a method, resin and fiber are forced into the mold cavity from a plunger cavity, and at least some of the fibers and resin are preferentially flowed to certain region in the mold cavity via the use of vents.

Systems and methods are disclosed that include forming a molded component by providing a raw material formed from a plurality of fibers disposed in a resin, cutting a plurality of layers of the raw material, placing the plurality of layers in a fixture, heating the plurality of layers in the fixture to form a unitary preform, placing the preform in a molding tool having a plurality of pins and an annular cavity formed between each pin and a cavity plate of the molding tool, and applying heat and pressure to the preform to force a portion of the preform into the annular cavities, wherein the fibers of the portion of the preform forced into the annular cavities are reoriented from a first orientation to a second orientation.