A material dispensing system including a first frame and a first application head. The first application head supported by the first frame including a first bias ply assembly comprising a bias ply roll supported on a bias ply dispenser unit, the first bias ply assembly configured to pass bias ply material along a bias path; and a first non-bias ply assembly comprising a non-bias ply roll supported by a non-bias ply dispenser unit, the non-bias ply assembly configured to pass non-bias ply material along a non-bias path; wherein the bias path and the non-bias path are substantially parallel. Another aspect provides a material dispensing system including a first frame and a first application head supported thereby; and a second frame and a second application head supported thereby; wherein the first frame and the second frame move in an X direction during operation. Another aspect includes preparing a composite article.

Wrinkling of a contoured composite laminate part during forming to contour is reduced by using laminate plies having off-angle reinforcing fibers that provide the part with primary axial strength along a major axis of loading.

Multi-ply, hybrid composite materials useful in the formation of thin walled, hollow, tubular articles having improved resistance to hoop stress. Two different, single-ply pre-pregs are impregnated with binders and laminated together with the fibers of the layers oriented at a bias relative to each other. The hybrid composite is rolled into a tubular article having excellent strength uniformity along the full length of the tubular article.

A discrete segmented pre-preg ply is provided along with a method for manufacturing same, a discrete segmented multilayer pad manufactured by stacking discrete segmented pre-preg plies and a method for manufacturing composite parts from discrete segmented multilayer pads. The discrete segmented pre-preg ply includes a discrete segmented pre-preg layer 3ds having a thickness and including unidirectional fibres arranged parallel to the longitudinal direction (D), the fibres being embedded in a resin matrix, and a discrete anti-adhesive liner 2d applied to one face of the discrete segmented pre-preg layer 3ds. Only the discrete segmented layer 3ds includes segments which are cut along its entire thickness and arranged in staggered rows.

The present invention relates to a part of a luggage system, in particular a shell of a hard-shell case or trolley, comprising a natural fiber material. The present invention further relates to a method for the manufacture and a method for the repair of such a part. A part of a luggage system is provided which comprises a fiber-reinforced material, wherein the fiber-reinforced material comprises a natural fiber material and a matrix material. The natural fiber material comprises at least one set of unidirectional fibers which are embedded in and/or impregnated with the matrix material.

Provided is a method for producing a fiber reinforced plastic with which the occurrence of wrinkling or bridging in a convex surface or a concave surface having a large curvature can be suppressed at the same time even if the fiber reinforced plastic has a complicated three-dimensional shape, the method for producing a fiber reinforced plastic, including a step of shaping a prepreg sheet in which continuous fibers are impregnated with a resin material into a three-dimensional shape to produce a fiber reinforced plastic(a); wherein at least a portion of the continuous fibers in an area (X) of the prepreg sheet corresponding to an area (X) in which the fiber reinforced plastic (a) is sheared and deformed is bent in an in-plane direction in advance.

Wrinkling of a contoured composite laminate part during forming to contour is reduced by using laminate plies having off-angle reinforcing fibers that provide the part with primary axial strength along a major axis of loading.

A prepreg, including: a fiber layer containing unidirectionally arranged discontinuous carbon fibers and a thermosetting resin; and a resin layer existing on at least one side of said fiber layer and containing a thermosetting resin and a thermoplastic resin; in which said prepreg contains carbon fibers having an areal weight of fibers of 120 to 300 g/m.sup.2, and has a mass fraction of resin of 25 to 50% with respect to the whole mass of said prepreg; and in which a temperature at which a coefficient of interlayer friction is 0.05 or less is in a temperature range of from 40 to 80 C., the interlayer friction being caused at the contact interface between layers of said prepreg when the middle one of three layers that are each made of said prepreg and laid up is pulled out, said coefficient of interlayer friction being measured at 10 C. intervals in a temperature range of from 40 to 80 C. under conditions including a pulling speed of 0.2 mm/min, a perpendicular stress of 0.08 MPa, and a pulling length of 1 mm. There is provided a prepreg with which a wrinkle-free preform can be produced and which expresses excellent, mechanical property in carbon fiber reinforced plastics made thereof.

Described are composite grid structures that have a plurality of ply layers, each one of the plurality of ply layers comprising a plurality of first elongate tapes oriented in a first direction and a plurality of second elongate tapes oriented in a second direction, the second direction being offset from the first direction by an angle of at least 25 degrees. In the grid structures: each of the first elongate tapes has a first length extending between opposing ends of each of the plurality of first elongate tapes and a first midpoint intermediate the opposing ends, and each of the second elongate tapes has a second length extending between opposing ends of each of the plurality of second elongate tapes and a second midpoint intermediate the opposing ends. Associated composite laminate structures, grid structures, and methods of manufacturing and/or using the same are also disclosed.

A discrete segmented pre-preg ply is provided along with a method for manufacturing same, a discrete segmented multilayer pad manufactured by stacking discrete segmented pre-preg plies and a method for manufacturing composite parts from discrete segmented multilayer pads. The discrete segmented pre-preg ply includes a discrete segmented pre-preg layer 3ds having a thickness and including unidirectional fibres arranged parallel to the longitudinal direction (D), the fibres being embedded in a resin matrix, and a discrete anti-adhesive liner 2d applied to one face of the discrete segmented pre-preg layer 3ds. Only the discrete segmented layer 3ds includes segments which are cut along its entire thickness and arranged in staggered rows.