JPH06200052A - Racket frame - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a racket frame made of FRP that is uniformly colored and does not easily come off. A racket frame including a fiber reinforced plastic formed by curing a prepreg having a colored layer formed by spraying a coloring material on the surface of the fiber reinforced prepreg.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a racket frame made of fiber reinforced plastic having an arbitrary color.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a fiber-reinforced plastic (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "FRP") which is lightweight and has high mechanical strength has been used for a frame of a racket such as tennis or badminton. Conventional FRP products are often uncolored, that is, products that utilize the color of the reinforcing fibers as they are.
However, it may be desired to color the product in a color other than the color of the reinforcing fibers. For this purpose, usually
The finished FRP is painted and colored. However, the FRP colored by painting has a defect that the color easily peels off. In order to overcome this drawback, it has been proposed to include a masking material for masking the color of the reinforcing fibers and a coloring agent for performing desired coloring in the matrix resin. For example, JP-A-3-119038 discloses a colored prepreg in which a flaky colorant and a masking pigment are contained in a matrix resin.

However, in the prior art in which the colorant is mixed in the matrix resin, it is necessary to uniformly disperse the colorant in the resin in order to achieve uniform coloring.
This is not always easy. If the coloring material is unevenly dispersed in the resin, uneven coloring occurs.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an FRP which is uniformly colored and which does not easily come off.
Is to provide a racket frame consisting of.

As a result of earnest research, the present inventors have found that uniform coloring can be surely performed by spraying a coloring material on the surface of the prepreg, and completed the present invention.

That is, the present invention provides a racket frame containing a fiber reinforced plastic formed by curing a prepreg having a colored layer formed by spraying a coloring material on the surface of the fiber reinforced prepreg.

The present invention will be described in more detail below.

FR constituting the racket frame of the present invention
P contains a reinforcing fiber and a matrix resin, and a coloring material is sprayed on the surface thereof. As the reinforcing fiber constituting the racket frame of the present invention, any of those conventionally used for prepregs can be used. For example, as the inorganic fiber, glass fiber, carbon fiber,
Graphite fiber, alumina fiber, boron fiber, titania fiber, silicon carbide fiber, etc .; various natural fibers;
As organic synthetic fibers, cellulose derivative fibers, aramid fibers, polyester fibers, polyamide fibers, acrylic fibers, polyethylene fibers, polypropylene fibers, etc .; as metal fibers, steel fibers, stainless fibers, tungsten fibers, etc .; metal-coated inorganic fibers, organic fibers; ceramics Coated fibers or the like can be used. Multiple types of fibers can also be used. The fiber diameter of the reinforcing fiber is not limited at all,
Any thickness can be selected according to the application. In addition, any form of reinforcing fiber can be adopted as desired, and the fibers are aligned in one direction,
A non-woven fabric or the like can be arbitrarily adopted.

Further, the matrix resin in the FRP is not limited at all, and any of those conventionally used for prepregs can be adopted. For example, epoxy resin, phenol resin, alkyd resin,
Thermosetting resin such as urea-formaldehyde resin, unsaturated polyester resin, aromatic polyamide resin, polyimide resin, polyamide-imide resin, polyester-imide resin, polybenzothiazole resin, silicon resin (having fluidity before curing) ); Heat of polyethylene, polypropylene, acrylic resin, styrene resin, polyvinyl chloride, ABS resin, styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer, polyamide, polyacetal, polysulfone, polycarbonate, polyphenylene oxide, polyether sulfone, polyether ether ketone, etc. Plastic resin: Polybutadiene, polyisoprene, polychloroprene, styrene-butadiene copolymer, acrylonitrile-butadiene copolymer, synthetic rubber such as silicone rubber, and natural rubber are adopted. Rukoto can. A plurality of resins may be mixed and used. Other additives may be further added to the matrix resin.

The mixing ratio of the reinforcing fiber and the matrix resin in the FRP is not particularly limited, but is usually about 80:20 to 20:80 by weight.

In the prepreg used for producing the FRP of the present invention, a coloring material is sprayed on the surface of the prepreg having the reinforcing fibers and the matrix resin to form a coloring layer. Preferred examples of the coloring material include inorganic white pigments such as titanium dioxide, zinc sulfide, zinc white, lithopone, antimony oxide, lead hydroxycarbonate, lead oxysulfate, alumina powder, silica powder, silica alumina powder; iron oxide, titanium yellow, Inorganic chromatic oxide pigments such as chromium oxide and cobalt blue; inorganic sulfide pigments such as cadmium red and cadmium yellow; inorganic silicate pigments such as ultramarine blue; inorganic chromate pigments such as yellow lead; various fine metal powders; azo pigments , Phthalocyanine-based, quinacridone-based, dioxazine-based, perinone-based, anthraquinone-based, isoindolinone-based, quinophthalone-based, perylene-based organic pigments and metal flakes coloring types, various vapor deposition products, lame color products It is possible, but not limited to these.

The colorant can be sprayed by dissolving or suspending the colorant as described above in a dispersion medium and spraying it with a sprayer. Examples of such a dispersion medium include low-viscosity epoxy resin and the like. The viscosity of the dispersion medium is preferably 1,000 to 30,000 cps. The concentration of the coloring material in the dispersion medium is not particularly limited, but is usually preferably about 10% to 30% on a weight basis.

The thickness of the colored layer formed by spraying the coloring material is not particularly limited and may be a desired thickness, but it is usually about 5 to 30 μm.

In the racket frame of the present invention, since the coloring material is sprayed on the prepreg surface by spraying,
When the prepreg is cured, the colorant is fixed by the cured matrix resin, so that the colorant is less likely to come off as compared with the conventional coloring by applying FRP. However, if it is desired to prevent the colorant from falling off more completely, the colored layer can be covered with a transparent protective layer. If the protective layer has sufficient strength,
The fiber-reinforced resin is not necessarily required, but a fiber-reinforced resin having transparent reinforcing fibers and a transparent matrix resin is preferable. As the transparent reinforcing fiber, any of those conventionally used for a prepreg can be used, and any of the above-mentioned fibers can be adopted as long as it is transparent. Preferable examples include glass fiber, alumina fiber, thermoplastic resin fiber (polyethylene fiber, polyester fiber, nylon fiber, polyurethane fiber) and the like. Further, the thickness and the form of the reinforcing fiber are not limited at all as in the above. As the transparent matrix resin, any of the resins exemplified in the above description can be preferably used as long as it is transparent, and examples thereof include epoxy resin, unsaturated polyester resin, vinyl ester resin, and urethane. An acrylate resin or the like can be preferably used.

The prepreg for producing the racket frame of the present invention can be produced using, for example, an apparatus as shown in FIG. Reinforced fibers are fed from the krill stand 1 and coated with matrix resin.
Similarly, the undercoat paper 4 coated with the matrix resin is unwound from the unwinding rolls 5 and 6, and pressed onto the reinforcing fiber 2 by the hot rolls 7 and 7 '. The reinforcing fibers impregnated with the matrix resin in this way are heated by the hot plate 8 and further hot rolls 9 and 9 '.
Then, the used coated paper is cooled by the cooling plate 10, and the used coated paper is wound on the upper release paper take-up roll 11 and the lower release paper take-up roll 12, respectively.
The prepreg thus formed then passes under the colorant spraying device 13, where the colorant is sprayed. A colorant tray 14 is provided below this region. The prepreg thus coated with the coloring material passes through the drying zone 15 and is wound by the product winding roll 16. This completes the prepreg of the present invention.

The racket frame of the present invention can be produced by curing the above prepreg into a racket frame shape according to a conventional method, and a prepreg having no colored layer is coated on another prepreg or core material. After that, it can also be produced by coloring with the above-mentioned spraying, further coating the above-mentioned protective layer if desired, and then curing by a conventional method. Furthermore, the prepreg of the present invention can be laminated on another prepreg with the side on which the colorant has been sprayed facing downward and cured to obtain a fiber reinforced plastic. In this aspect, the prepreg itself sprayed with the colorant functions as a protective layer. In this case, the prepreg sprayed with the coloring material is preferably a transparent prepreg reinforced with transparent fibers.

The racket frame of the present invention can be used as a racket frame for tennis, badminton, etc.

[0018]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY According to the present invention, FR having uniform coloring
A racket frame consisting of P was provided. In the present invention, since the colored layer is formed by spraying, uniform coloring can be surely performed as compared with the case where the coloring material is added to the matrix resin. Further, since the coloring material is sprayed onto the surface of the prepreg, when the prepreg is cured, the coloring material is fixed by the cured matrix resin, so that the coloring material is peeled off as compared with the conventional coloring by applying FRP. It is hard to fall off. Furthermore, in the prepreg of the present invention, since the colored layer is formed on the surface, the hiding property of the layer thereunder is high, and there is also an effect that a hiding material for hiding the color of the reinforcing fiber is unnecessary. It

[0019]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described more specifically below based on examples. However, the present invention is not limited to the following examples. The matrix resins used in the following examples were all epoxy resins.

Reference Example 1 A prepreg was manufactured using the apparatus shown in FIG. That is, a reinforcing fiber made of glass fiber was impregnated with an epoxy resin, heated and cooled, and then a coloring material was sprayed from a coloring material spraying device. Coloring material is low viscosity epoxy resin (viscosity 2,000 cp
15% by weight of cadmium red was dispersed in s). Next, this was dried and wound to obtain a colored prepreg.

Example 1 A PAN-based carbon fiber prepreg (manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc., product name P3052) having a thickness of 120 μm and a resin amount of 32% is used as a shaft of the racket frame around a core material made of hard urethane foam for a tennis racket frame. 4 so that the longitudinal direction is parallel
A total of 4 layers were wound on each layer at + 45 ° and -45 °. Then, the prepreg manufactured in Reference Example 1 was
The layers were wrapped, taped and cured according to the usual method. Then, the tape was removed to complete a tennis racket frame whose surface was uniformly colored.

Example 2 In Example 1, after the colored prepreg was wound, a glass fiber prepreg was further wound thereon, and the same treatment as in Example 1 was carried out. The tennis racket frame protected by is completed.

Example 3 In Example 1, the prepreg produced in Reference Example 1 was
One layer was wound with the colorant inside. Less than,
When treated in the same manner as in Example 1, it was colored beautifully,
A tennis racket frame whose surface is protected by the colored prepreg itself has been completed.

Comparative Example 1 A colored prepreg was produced in the same manner as in Reference Example 1, except that the colorant dispersion liquid used in Reference Example 1 was contained in the resin without being sprayed. When a tennis racket frame was manufactured using this in the same manner as in Example 1, uneven coloring was observed on the surface.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a prepreg manufacturing apparatus used for manufacturing a racket frame of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A racket frame containing a fiber reinforced plastic formed by curing a prepreg having a colored layer formed by spraying a coloring material on the surface of the fiber reinforced prepreg.