FUNCTIONALIZED TAPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF FIBRE-REINFORCED COMPOSITE PARTS

Abstract

A method of providing a functionalized veil or tape for manufacture of fibre-reinforced composite parts, the method comprising: depositing functional particles (12) in and/or on a veil or tape (11), by flowing F a fluid (13), through the veil or tape (11), to provide the functionalized veil or tape, wherein the veil or tape comprises reinforcement fibres and the fluid includes functional particles.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a functionalized veil or tape that is useful for manufacturing fibre-reinforced composite parts, the method comprising: providing a veil or tape comprising reinforcement fibres; and causing a fluid that includes functional particles to flow through the veil or tape, thereby depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the functional particles are electrically conductive particles.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcement fibres are electrically insulating reinforcement fibres.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein; the veil comprises non-aligned and/or discontinuous reinforcement fibres; or the tape comprises aligned and/or continuous reinforcement fibres.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape across a width and/or a length thereof.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises depositing the functional particles in and/or on a periphery of the veil or tape.

8. The method according to any of claim 5, wherein non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises masking the veil or tape.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises applying a magnetic field and/or an electric field while flowing the fluid through the veil or tape.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises depositing the functional particles on the reinforcement fibres and/or in pores therebetween.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising reacting and/or functionalizing the functional particles.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising dispersing and/or suspending the functionalized particles in the fluid.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein causing the fluid to flow through the veil or tape comprises applying a pressure differential to the fluid while the fluid is flowing through the veil or tape.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein causing the fluid to flow through the veil or tape comprises orienting the veil or tape relative to the flowing fluid.

15. An apparatus configured for manufacturing a functionalized veil or tape that is useful for manufacturing fibre-reinforced composite parts, the apparatus comprising: a depositing device configured to cause a fluid that includes functional particles to flow through a tape or veil that comprises reinforcement fibres, thereby depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0075] Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the figures, in which:

[0076] FIGS. 1(a) to 1(d) schematically depict methods according to exemplary embodiments; and

[0077] FIGS. 2(a) to 2(d) schematically depict functional particle contents of functionalized veils or tapes according to exemplary embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0078] FIGS. 1(a) to 1(d) schematically depict methods according to exemplary embodiments.

[0079] The methods are of providing a functionalized veil or tape, comprising reinforcement fibres, for manufacture of fibre-reinforced composite parts, the methods comprising: [0080] depositing functional particles 12 in and/or on a veil or tape 11, comprising the reinforcement fibres (not shown), by flowing F a fluid 13, including the functional particles 12, through the veil or tape 11, to provide the functionalized veil or tape.

[0081] In more detail, material (i.e. fluid 13, particularly a liquid in this example, including the functional particles 12) is drawn through the veils or tapes, as shown schematically in the exemplary embodiments shown in FIGS. 1(a) to 1(d), to produce an intentional spread of functional particles across the entire veil or tape width. By controlling an angle (i.e. an orientation) at which the veil or tape is brought over a pump, use is made of the pumping direction and/or gravity to assist in distributing the particles (particularly, but not limited to, colloids) towards the lower end of the veil (relative to flat). Additionally and/or alternatively, a device performing the same operation, for example a mask, may be brought over the veil or tape, and the mask maintained static or moved dynamically during the method. Suitably masks include a protrusion of a larger piece of veil or tape (useful for applying a narrower tapered width, e.g. for grounding circuit boards, taking on a visual appearance much like gilded edging).

[0082] This process may be performed by combination of a means to dispense a dispersion (such as nozzles for liquids/gasses, hoppers and/or agitators, electrostatically/-magnetically charged or otherwise) on one face of a veil or tape, and a means to affect a pressure differential through the thickness of the veil or tape through differentially pressurizing the dispensing side (such as a liquid pump or a vacuum pump on one side of the veil or tape and ambient pressure on the other side of the veil or tape to maintain a difference in pressure and impart a flow to the media).

[0083] Uses of the functionalized veil or tape provided by the method according to the first aspect could include ground planes or edges integrated into the PCB material (e.g. FR4 PCB material), particularly those where there are analog and digital circuits on the same board, distributions of conductivity intended to reduce EM interference on boards, including those intended to make a Faraday cage/enclosure or similar.

[0084] Other civilian applications include the colouration/dying and/or functionalisation of materials for cleaning products, clothing and currency.

[0085] Wipes and sponge mops can be graduated with an agent, so as to deposit surfactant onto a surface at the start of the wipe/mop travel, to be absorbed in the remainder of the sponge and/or towards the end of the wipe/sponge in order to trail with a drying agent, for instance.

[0086] Clothing products can have particles embedded within them through this process, with the possibility of embedding precious metals into fine fabrics where other methods may destroy the underlying veil or tape.

[0087] Use of this technique could gild edges to impart a visual cue of significance or produce a form of security marking for currency or high value documents such as banknotes, bearer bonds, certificates, gilts, or promotional merchandise (such as golden tickets, invitations).

[0088] A (uniform) porous/semi-permeable membrane/veil can be continuously drawn across an angled pressure differential, whereby the enforced/entrained motion of particles is unevenly distributed across the width of the veil or tape. This could be performed by altering the distance and/or location of a vacuum source on one side of the veil or tapein order to induce a stronger flow in a particular location along the widthas in FIG. 1(a).

[0089] Alternatively, the angle at which the veil or tape is brought over a liquid pump can be altered (as in FIG. 1(b)) in order to make use of the pumping direction and/or gravity to assist in distributing the particles (particularly, but not limited to, colloids) towards the lower end of the veil (relative to flat).

[0090] In both of these methods, successive plugging of pores in the veil or tape can be taken advantage of, as the veil or tape now is not uniform in its porosity/permeability (and path-through size/collective pore size/channel widths are significantly changed) and will therefore behave differently as a filtration medium; this is useful for further passes of the above processes and/or depositing particles that (wouldn't plug/undesirable distribution) as the initially-processed veil or tape and its deposited particles can influence the further deposition through changing the pore characteristics (size, number-both of these affecting flow, as in FIG. 1(c)) as well as influences arising from the properties (or mere presence) of the deposited particles (i.e. magnetic attraction, chemical reaction, viscosity effects such as skin forming or beadingto affect surface finish, for instance). These influences could be taken advantage of for further affecting the distribution of particles, such as a strong magnetic field over a particular area/end or subjecting part of the veil or tape to a reactant (dipping an end in, for instance) to further change the properties and/or functionthis could be a useful technique to react deposited products in situ, a pathway for otherwise-too large (or difficult to process) particles to be embedded in veil or tape.

[0091] The width affected can be adjusted through the use of blocking plates (i.e. a mask), either in front of the veil or tape to block the flow of particles, or behind the membrane to reduce the vacuum/negative flow drawing through the veil or tape. Alternatively and/or additionally, a device (with appropriate/additional curtaining) (i.e. a mask) could be passed over part of a veil or tape, to either produce a narrow taper over veil or tape edge(s), or where a machine to process the full veil or tape size would be impractical; a large veil or tape disc could have a gradient applied if its edge was rotated through such a machineor indeed, if the machine was sized from the centre to the disc edge, an uneven deposition would be desirable as it could provide an even coating owing to the increased travel speed at the edge.

[0092] FIGS. 2(a) to 2(d) schematically depict functional particle contents of functionalized veils or tapes according to exemplary embodiments.

[0093] FIG. 2(a) schematically depicts functional particle content of a functionalized veil or tape decreasing linearly across a width of the functionalized veil or tape. In this example, the method comprises controlling an angle (i.e. an orientation) at which the veil or tape is brought over a pump, in order to make use of the pumping direction and/or gravity to assist in distributing the particles (particularly, but not limited to, colloids) towards the lower end of the veil (relative to flat). In this example, the angle is constant during the method, to provide the linearly decreasing functional particle content of the functionalized veil or tape.

[0094] FIG. 2(b) schematically depicts functional particle content of a functionalized veil or tape decreasing non-linearly across a width of the functionalized veil or tape. In this example, the method comprises altering an angle (i.e. an orientation) at which the veil or tape is brought over a pump or vacuum source, in order to make use of the pumping direction and/or gravity to assist in distributing the particles (particularly, but not limited to, colloids) towards the lower end of the veil (relative to flat). In this example, the angle is non-constant (i.e. changes) during the method, to provide the non-linearly decreasing functional particle content of the functionalized veil or tape.

[0095] FIG. 2(c) schematically depicts functional particle content of a functionalized veil or tape varying periodically across a width of the functionalized veil or tape. In this example, non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises masking the veil or tape, to provide the periodic variation of the functional particle content of the functionalized veil or tape.

[0096] FIG. 2(d) schematically depicts functional particle content of a functionalized veil or tape varying aperiodically across a width of the functionalized veil or tape. In this example, non-uniformly depositing the functional particles in and/or on the veil or tape comprises masking the veil or tape and altering an angle (i.e. an orientation) at which the veil or tape is brought over a pump or vacuum source, in order to make use of the pumping direction and/or gravity to assist in distributing the particles (particularly, but not limited to, colloids) towards the lower end of the veil (relative to flat), to provide the aperiodic variation of the functional particle content of the functionalized veil or tape.