A structural reinforcement for an article including a carrier (10) that includes: (t) a mass of polymeric material (12) having an outer surface; and (ii) at least one fibrous composite Insert (14) or overlay (980) having an outer surface and including at least one elongated fiber arrangement (e.g., having a plurality of ordered fibers). The fibrous Insert (14) or overlay (980) is envisioned to adjoin the mass of the polymeric material in a predetermined location for carrying a predetermined load that Is subjected upon the predetermined location (thereby effectively providing localized reinforcement to that predetermined location). The fibrous insert (14) or overlay (980) and the mass of polymeric material (12) are of compatible materials, structures or both, for allowing the fibrous insert or overlay to be at feast partially joined to the mass of the polymeric material. Disposed upon at least a portion of the carrier (10) may be a mass of activatable material (126). The fibrous insert (14) or overlay (980) may include a polymeric matrix that includes a thermoplastic epoxy.

A thermoplastic epoxy matrix formulation, based on 100 parts by weight of the thermoplastic epoxy matrix formulation, includes 0.1 to 95 parts by weight of a difunctional epoxy resin and 0.1 to 80 parts by weight of a latent hardener, wherein the latent hardener is an amine compound containing two reactive hydrogens.

The present invention relates to an epoxy-resin composition as matrix component for sheet molding compounds (SMC) and/or bulk molding compounds (BMC), comprising a resin component comprising at least one epoxy resin and a hardener component comprising at least one aminoalkylimidazole compound, at least one diazabicycloalkylen compound and at least one latent hardener. In said epoxy-resin composition, the amount of the aminoalkylimidazole compounds used is in the range from 0.007 to 0.025 mol per mole of epoxy groups of the entire composition. The invention also relates to a fiber-matrix-semifinished-product composition (SMC composition or BMC composition) with, as matrix component, the epoxy-resin composition mentioned, and with, suspended therein, short reinforcement fibers with an average length of from 0.3 to 5.0 cm. The invention also relates to the corresponding semisolid fiber-matrix composite, in particular to the semisolid SMC and to the corresponding cured fiber-matrix semifinished product, in particular the cured SMC.

Provided is a sheet-like prepreg that has both a low coefficient of linear thermal expansion and high flexibility and offers excellent anti-warpage performance and cracking resistance. The sheet-like prepreg according to the present invention includes a curable composition and a sheet-like porous support impregnated with the curable composition. The sheet-like porous support is made from a material having a coefficient of linear thermal expansion of 10 ppm/K or less. The sheet-like prepreg gives a cured product having a glass transition temperature of 60 C. to 100 C. The curable composition includes one or more curable compounds (A) and at least one of a curing agent (B) and a curing catalyst (C). The curable compounds (A) include an epoxide having a weight per epoxy equivalent of 140 to 3000 g/eq in an amount of 50 weight percent or more of the totality of the curable compounds (A).

A prepreg containing the following constituent elements [A] to [C], wherein a resin composition containing the constituent elements [B] and [C] has a higher-order structure derived from a diffraction angle 20 between 1.0 and 6.0 observed with X-ray diffraction after curing: [A]: carbon fibers [B]: epoxy resin [C]: curing agent of [B].

An article comprises a carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) substrate, a buffer layer disposed adjacent the substrate, the buffer layer comprising a poly(para-xylylene) polymer; and a moisture barrier coating disposed adjacent the buffer layer.

An object is to provide: an optical film such as a retardation film, the optical film having a low photoelastic coefficient (superior optical characteristics) and being superior in heat resistance and transparency; and a polarizing plate including the film. The optical film contains a polyester resin containing a unit (A) of the following formula (1).

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A subject-matter of the invention is a process for the depolymerization of a polyester feedstock comprising opaque PET, the said process comprising at least the stages of conditioning, of depolymerization and of separation of the diol and of separation of the liquid effluent rich in monomers, followed by a decolouration stage.

The present invention relates to an epoxy resin composition, comprising the following components: (A) an epoxy resin containing oxazolidinone structure having the structure of the formula (1), (B) an active ester curing agent, and (C) a curing accelerator. The epoxy composition, prepreg, laminate and printed circuit board prepared from such epoxy composition have the following features of low coefficient of thermal expansion, low dielectric loss factor Df less than or equal to 0.0084, low water absorption and excellent moisture and heat resistance.

A prepreg sheet (1) is formed by stacking a plurality of unit layers (10a, 10b) In the unit layers (10a, 10b), prepreg tapes (100), in which a reinforced fiber bundle is impregnated with a thermosetting matrix resin composition, are disposed in rows a plurality of times. One or more of the unit layers (10a, 10b) has a gap (G) between adjacent prepreg tapes (100), and the width thereof is 10% or less of the width of the narrower of the adjacent prepreg tapes (100).