Equipment for forming a tubular rod from a bundle of fibrous material comprising a mandrel constructed to form a space within the bundle of fibres; the mandrel includes a passage for delivering a treatment fluid to facilitate the formation of the fibres into a tubular structure as the fibre bundle as the bundle passes over the mandrel.

The invention relates to a pultrusion method for producing fibre-reinforced plastic profiled sections and to a pultrusion device.

The composite pultruded products either in I profile or Plate profile of higher cross sectional area where said products consisting essentially synthetic polyester felts as core impregnated with a resin system comprises of at least one resin, curing system comprising a curing agent and an accelerator, a filler, a thinner, pigment or any other additives; encapsulated between bi-directionally and/or uni-directionally oriented synthetic fabric selected from polyester, carbon, aramid, glass, basalt and mixtures thereof impregnated with said resin system are provided. In another composite pultruded products either in I profile or Plate profile of higher cross sectional area where said products consisting of plank of short fibers bagasse premixed with the said resin system as core is enclosed between the synthetic polyester felts impregnated with the resin system which is further enclosed between bi-directionally and/or uni-directionally oriented synthetic fabric selected from polyester, carbon, aramid, glass, basalt and mixtures thereof impregnated with the resin system. The system and method for the preparation of said composite pultruded products are also illustrated herein. These products lead to a significant reduction in weight and reduction in density with higher stiffness and bending strength. The present composite products are encapsulated by fabrics in the peripheral area bringing more integrity uniformity of synthetic polyester felt materials. This leads to a significant cost reduction without sacrificing much tensile strength.

A fully impregnated fiber-reinforced thermoplastic granule includes a fiber core impregnated with a thermoplastic resin and coated with the resin and subsequently polymerized to form a thermoplastic. The granule is formed in a continuous process including a continuous fiber strand being coated and impregnated with a thermoplastic resin, curing the thermoplastic resin, and cutting the fiber and thermoplastic into granules of a desired length. The continuous process results in a uniform, fully impregnated fiber core in the granule which results in a longer reinforcing fiber for added strength in subsequently produced products formed from the granules.

An alternating pressure melt impregnation device and a melt impregnation method, including having a resin melt squirted from each resin melt runner on an upper die and a lower die of a melt injection area, and thus the squirted resin melt is enable to be squirted directly on an upper surface and a lower surface of a continuous fiber bundle which is entering into an impregnation chamber. Impregnation and infiltration for both surfaces of the continuous fiber bundle are primarily completed by a squirted pressure. The resin melt inside the impregnation chamber flows to a decompression chambers at both sides of the impregnation chamber. When the resin melt flows to a throttle plate, a re-impregnation for the continuous fiber bundle is realized. Then the pressure is decreased and a section of the resin melt is enlarged and a radial flow is generated due to the Barus effect.

The invention relates to a device for impregnating fiber bundles with a polymer melt, in which device fiber bundles, which are inserted in parallel with one another into a slot-like infeed of an impregnation unit (4), are guided through between two guide plates (16, 17), which have undulating surfaces and are arranged so as to be complementary to one another at a defined spacing, and are discharged from the impregnation unit (4) via an outlet (28), the fiber bundles being saturated with the polymer melt while passing through the impregnation unit (4), which polymer melt following the slot-like infeed is introduced between the guide plates (16, 17) into the passage (29). According to the invention, the impregnation unit (4) comprises at least two passages (29) for a defined number of fiber bundles in each case, the passages (29) each comprising an inlet (26) for polymer melt.

Systems and methods are provided for fabricating preforms. One embodiment is a method comprising acquiring tows of fiber reinforced material, selecting a number of tows to utilize for a bundle having an aggregate shape, assembling the tows together into the bundle, curving the assembled tows by slipping the assembled tows with respect to each other, drawing the bundle through a die to bind the bundle into a preform, enforcing a longitudinally varying cross section along the preform, and locking in a curvature of the preform.

A pultrusion method, equipment for preparing a fiber-reinforced composite, and a fiber-reinforcement composite are provided. The pultrusion method comprises the following steps: i) preforming inner layer fibers; ii) impregnating the preformed inner layer fibers with a first resin to obtain a first preform; iii) heating and curing the first preform to obtain an inner layer profile; iv) preforming outer layer fibers together with the inner layer profile; v) impregnating the outer layer fibers with a second resin to obtain a second preform; and vi) heating and curing the second preform to obtain the fiber-reinforced composite.

Plastic profiles are produced by a pultrusion method. For this, a mold is moved periodically relative to the stationary plastic profile and said profile is held by a holding means and transported away. In particular, the starting and the stopping of the method are problematical, since a tensile stress must be applied, by which both slack fibers and rigid profiles can be drawn through the mold. The invention creates a method and a device for simple and reliable manufacture of plastic profiles. For this, it is provided that at least one cross section of a receiving space of the at least one holding means is changed along a longitudinal axis of the holding means in order to grasp a reinforcement and/or the plastic profile.

A head is disclosed for use with a manufacturing system. The head may have a housing configured to discharge a tubular structure reinforced with at least one continuous fiber and having a three-dimensional trajectory, and a cure enhancer operatively connected to the housing and configured to cure a liquid matrix in the tubular structure during discharge. The head may also have a nozzle configured to discharge a fill material into the tubular structure, and a wand extending from the housing to the nozzle.