Patent Application
20220379572
This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 110119590, filed May 28, 2021, which is herein incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a technique of manufacturing a pre-preg, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a pre-preg.
When making a pre-preg, a fiber bundle is firstly extracted from a fiber bundle roll, the fiber bundle is impregnated with a resin by passing through the impregnated resin wiping wheel, and then the resin-impregnated fiber bundle is wound around a winding roller to form a pre-preg cloth.
In such a method, when the fiber bundle is impregnated with the resin, the fiber bundle is wound via the action between the fiber bundle, the wiping wheel, and the winding roller. However, during the start action and the termination action of the winding roller, the wiping wheel do not precisely synchronize with the rotation of the winding roller due to the pulling between the fiber bundle, the wiping wheel, and the winding roller or their own inertia, and thus resulting in a portion of the pre-preg is not fully impregnated.
In another dipping technique of the current techniques, the fiber bundle passes through a resin tank directly, and then the fiber bundle is squeezed by extrusion wheels to remove the excess resin on the fiber bundle, so as to control the resin content of the fiber bundle. However, when the fiber bundle is squeezed, a resin adhesion amount of the fiber bundle is unstable due to the change of the yarn tension.
Therefore, one objective of the present disclosure is to provide a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a pre-preg, which uses a tension controller to stabilize a tension of a fiber bundle, so as to prevent the tension of the fiber bundle from being affected by the start and the stop of the winding roller, thereby keeping a fit degree between the fiber bundle and the wiping wheel to achieve an effect that each yarn in the fiber bundle can be fully impregnated with a resin. In addition, because the tension on the fiber bundle is stable, an amount of hairiness of the fibers can be reduced.
Another objective of the present disclosure is to provide a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a pre-preg, which uses rollers with smooth surfaces to transport a fiber bundle, so as to flatten and widen the fiber bundle. Therefore, ear-folding of the fiber bundle can be greatly reduced, a width of the fiber bundle can be stabilized, an impregnation effect of the fiber bundle can be enhanced, and a resin content variation of the pre-preg can be effectively reduced.
According to the aforementioned objectives, the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a pre-preg. In this method, a fiber bundle of a fiber bundle roll is transferred to a wiping wheel and is flattened by several rollers. These rollers are arranged in sequence between the fiber bundle roll and the wiping wheel and are separated from each other. The fiber bundle is transferred by using the wiping wheel to impregnate the fiber bundle with a resin on a wheel surface of the wiping wheel. A tension of the fiber bundle on the rollers and the wiping wheel is controlled by using a tension controller during the transferring of the fiber bundle by the rollers and the wiping wheel. The fiber bundle impregnated with the resin is wound by using a winding roller.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, before using the rollers to transfer the fiber bundle, the method further includes performing a surface treatment on the rollers to form a rolling surface of each of the rollers having a roughness from about 0.2 μm to about 25 μm.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the surface treatment includes performing a surface electroplating treatment, a heat treatment, a hot dip plating treatment, a thermal spray treatment, a redox treatment, a painting treatment, or a coating treatment under vacuum on the rollers.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the surface electroplating treatment includes coating a hard chrome layer on the rolling surface of each of the rollers.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a number of the rollers is from 2 to 12.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the tension controller is disposed between the rollers and the wiping wheel.
According to the aforementioned objectives, the present disclosure further provides an apparatus for manufacturing a pre-preg. The apparatus for manufacturing a pre-preg includes a winding roller, several rollers, a wiping wheel, and a tension controller. The winding roller is configured to wind a fiber bundle of a fiber bundle roll. The rollers are arranged between the fiber bundle roll and the winding roller, and are configured to transfer and flatten the fiber bundle. The rollers are arranged between the fiber bundle roll and the winding roller in sequence and are separated from each other. The wiping wheel is disposed between the rollers and the winding roller, and is configured to transfer the fiber bundle from the rollers, so as to impregnate the fiber bundle with a resin on a wheel surface of the wiping wheel. The winding roller winds the fiber bundle impregnated with the resin. The tension controller is disposed between the rollers and the wiping wheel, and is configured to control a tension of the fiber bundle on the rollers and the wiping wheel.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a roughness of a rolling surface of each of the rollers is from about 0.2 μm to about 25 μm.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a number of the rollers is from 2 to 12.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a rolling surface of each of the rollers is coated with a hard chrome layer.
The above and other objectives, features, advantages, and examples of the present disclosure can be more apparent and understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
Referring to
The winding roller 110 may be used to wind a fiber bundle 152 of a fiber bundle roll 150, in which the fiber bundle roll 150 is formed by winding the fiber bundle 152. For example, the winding roller 110 may be located at the most downstream of the entire apparatus 100 for manufacturing the pre-preg, the fiber bundle roll 150 may be located at the most upstream of the apparatus 100 for manufacturing the pre-preg, and the winding roller 110 located downstream can wind the fiber bundle 152 from the upstream.
The rollers 120 are disposed between the fiber bundle roll 150 and the winding roller 110. In some examples, a material of the rollers 120 is a tool steel or a stainless steel, such as stainless steel 304. The rollers 120 may be sequentially arranged between the fiber bundle roll 150 and the winding roller 110 along a direction of the fiber bundle roll 150 toward the winding roller 110, and the rollers 120 are separated from each other. In some examples, the rollers 120 are separated from each other by a distance and are staggered up and down, as shown in
The rollers 120 may be used to transfer the fiber bundle 152 from the fiber bundle roll 150. The fiber bundle 152 is meanderingly wound through the rollers 120 in sequence, and is adhered to a portion of a rolling surface 122 of each roller 120. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the roller 120 has a flat and smooth rolling surface 122, such that it can ensure that the width of the fiber bundle 152 is stable after passing through the roller 120, ear-folding of the fiber bundles 152 can be greatly reduced, and an amount of hairiness of the fiber bundle 152 can be effectively decreased. In some examples, before using the rollers 120 to transport the fiber bundle 152, a surface treatment is performed on the rollers 120 to reduce a roughness of the rolling surface 122 of each of the rollers 120 to about 0.2 μm to about 25 μm. In some exemplary examples, the roughness of the rolling surfaces 122 of the rollers 120 is from about 0.2 μm to about 6.3 μm. In some exemplary examples, the performing of the surface treatment on the rollers 120 may include performing a surface electroplating treatment, a heat treatment, a hot dip plating treatment, a thermal spray treatment, a redox treatment, a painting treatment, or a coating treatment under vacuum performed on the rollers 120. For example, when the surface electroplating treatment is performed on the rollers 120, a layer of hard chrome may be plated on the rolling surface 122 of each roller 120, thereby reducing the roughness of the rolling surface 122 of each roller 120. In addition, when the heat treatment is performed on the roller 120, the hardness of the roller 120 can be increased, thereby reducing the roughness of the rolling surface 122 of the roller 120.
The wiping wheel 130 is disposed between the rollers 120 and the winding roller 110, that is, between the most downstream one of the rollers 120 and the winding roller 110. The wiping wheel 130 can transfer the fiber bundle 152 from the rollers 120. A wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130 is adhered with a resin 160. In some examples, the apparatus 100 for manufacturing the pre-preg may include a resin supply device for supplying the resin 160 to the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130. In some exemplary examples, as shown in
In some examples, the resin 160 impregnating on the fiber bundle 152 is a thermosetting resin. For example, the resin 160 may be an epoxy resin, a vinyl resin, a phenolic resin, or an unsaturated polyester resin. In addition, a viscosity of the resin 160 may be, for example, about 200 cps to about 10000 cps.
In some examples, the apparatus 100 for manufacturing the pre-preg may optionally include two adjusting rollers 180 and 182. The two adjusting rollers 180 and 182 may be respectively disposed at the upstream and the downstream of the wiping wheel 130, in which the adjusting roller 180 is disposed between the most downstream one of the rollers 120 and the wiping wheel 130, and the adjusting roller 182 is disposed between the wiping wheel 130 and the winding roller 110. The adjusting the rollers 180 and 182 can adjust a travel path of the fiber bundle 152, such that the fiber bundle 152 transmitted from the rollers 120 can pass through the upper wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130 and be closely adhered to the wheel surface 132. For example, the fiber bundle 152 may firstly pass under the adjusting roller 180, next go upward and pass through the upper wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130, and then pass under the adjusting roller 182. That is, the adjusting rollers 180 and 182 respectively located on the upstream side and the downstream side of the wiping wheel 130 can adjust a path of the fiber bundle 152 and press the fiber bundle 152 on the upper wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130.
As shown in
Continuing to refer to
Referring to
When manufacturing a pre-preg, a step 200 may be performed to use several rollers 120 to transfer the fiber bundle 152 of the fiber bundle roll 150 to the wiping wheel 130. The fiber bundle 152 can meander through the rollers 120 in sequence, and can be adhered to a portion of the rolling surface 122 of each roller 120, such that these rollers 120 can flatten the fiber bundle 152 and expand the width of the fiber bundle 152 when transferring the fiber bundle 152. In some examples, before the fiber bundle 152 is transferred by the rollers 120, a surface treatment may be further performed on the rollers 120, so as to reduce the roughness of the rolling surface 122 of each roller 120. After the surface treatment, the roughness of the rolling surface 122 of each roller 120 may be, for example, from about 0.2 μm to about 25 μm, preferably from about 0.2 μm to about 6.3 μm. In the example that the rolling surfaces 122 of the rollers 120 are flat and smooth, the surface treatment of the rollers 120 can be omitted. For example, when the surface treatment is performed on the rollers 120, a surface electroplating treatment, a heat treatment, a hot dip plating treatment, a thermal spray treatment, a redox treatment, a painting treatment, or a coating treatment under vacuum may be performed on the rollers 120. For example, when the surface electroplating treatment is performed, a hard chrome layer may be plated on the rolling surface 122 of each roller 120
After the rollers 120 transfer the fiber bundle 152 to the wiping wheel 130, a step 210 may be performed to continue to transfer the fiber bundle 152 by using the wiping wheel 130. The fiber bundle 152 is adhered to a portion of the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130. The resin 160 is adhered to the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130, and the fiber bundle 152 is adhered to a portion of the wheel surface 132, such that as the wiping wheel 130 transfers the fiber bundle 152, the resin 160 on the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130 can be adhered to the fiber bundle 152. When the fiber bundle 152 is conveyed by the wiping wheel 130, the scraper 190 may be selectively used to scrape off the excess resin 160 adhered to the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130 to enhance the distribution uniformity of the resin 160 on the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130.
In some exemplary examples, as shown in
During the transferring of the fiber bundle 152 by the rollers 120 and the wiping wheel 130, a step 220 may be performed to use the tension controller 140, which is disposed between the rollers 120 and the wiping wheel 130, to regulate the tension of the fiber bundle 152 on the rollers 120 and the wiping wheel 130. Thus, the stability of the tension of the fiber bundle 152 during the transferring process can be enhanced, and inertia actions of the fiber bundle 152 due to activation tension and loss of tension caused by the start and the stop of the winding roller 110 can be avoided. Therefore, a stable fit between the fiber bundle 152 and the wheel surface 132 of the wiping wheel 130 can be maintained, such that each yarn in the fiber bundle 152 can be fully impregnated with the resin 160.
When the fiber bundle 152 is transferred, a step 230 may be performed to use the winding roller 110 to wind the fiber bundle 152 conveyed from the wiping wheel 130 and impregnated with the resin 160 to substantially complete the production of the pre-preg. The transferring and winding of the fiber bundle 152 are achieved by the mutual cooperation of the actions of the fiber bundle 152, the rollers 120, the wiping wheel 130, and the winding roller 110.
Several embodiments are specifically described below with reference to the apparatus and the method for manufacturing the pre-preg of the present disclosure. The fiber bundles used in these examples are carbon fiber 12K.
The embodiment 1 uses surface-treated rollers to transfer a fiber bundle, in which a number of the rollers may be 2 to 12, such as 5 to 8. In the example, a width of the fiber bundle is measured between the tension controller 140 and the adjusting roller 180 in
It can be seen from the table 1 that the fiber bundle can be effectively flattened by using the rollers to assist the transferring of the fiber bundle, so the width of the fiber bundle is greater than that of the fiber bundle transferred without using the rollers. In addition, the number of the ear folds in the fiber bundle conveyed by using the rollers is also significantly less than that of the fiber bundle, which is not conveyed by the rollers.
The embodiment 2 additionally uses a tension controller. The amount of hairiness of the fiber bundle is observed, and the observation results are listed in the table 2 below. The amount of hairiness is the amount of hairiness that occurs in a fiber bundle in a length of 500 meters.
It can be seen from the table 2 that the tension of the fiber bundle is stable by using the tension controller, such that there is hardly any hairiness in the fiber bundle, and the hairiness of the fiber bundle is significantly less than that of the fiber bundle without using the tension controller to adjust the tension.
The embodiment 3 uses rollers and a tension controller simultaneously. In the example, the width of the fiber bundle is similarly measured, for example, between the tension controller 140 and the adjusting roller 180 in
It can be seen from the table 3 that after adding the tension controller, it can prevents the tension of the fiber bundle from being too large or too small due to the inertial actions of starting and stopping. Furthermore, the additional rollers are used to flatten the fiber bundle and expand the width of the fiber bundle. Accordingly, the impregnation of the fiber bundle and the resin is better, and the resin content variation is effectively reduced.
According to the aforementioned embodiments, one advantage of the present disclosure is that the present disclosure uses a tension controller to stabilize a tension of a fiber bundle, so as to prevent the tension of the fiber bundle from being affected by the start and the stop of the winding roller, thereby keeping a fit degree between the fiber bundle and the wiping wheel to achieve an effect that each yarn in the fiber bundle can be fully impregnated with a resin. In addition, because the tension on the fiber bundle is stable, an amount of hairiness of the fibers can be reduced.
Another advantage of the present disclosure is that the present disclosure uses rollers with smooth surfaces to transport a fiber bundle, so as to flatten and widen the fiber bundle. Therefore, ear-folding of the fiber bundle can be greatly reduced, a width of the fiber bundle can be stabilized, an impregnation effect of the fiber bundle can be enhanced, and a resin content variation of the pre-preg can be effectively reduced.
Although the present disclosure has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, the foregoing embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrative of the present disclosure rather than limiting of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110119590 | May 2021 | TW | national |
