JPH108366A - Production of glass fiber mat - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for easily and efficiently producing glass fiber mat bearing tapered portions on the sides. SOLUTION: This glass fiber mat is produced by the following process : glass fiber strands S are cut to a specified length to form chopped strands C in an accumulated fashion; for the accumulated chopped strands C, tapered portions are formed at the sites representing the sides of the final glass fiber mat M so as to gradually decrease its thickness toward the ends followed by spreading a binder on the tapered portions which, in turn, are heated and hardened and then pressed to a specified thickness.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for producing a glass fiber mat.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A glass fiber mat used as a reinforcing material for reinforcing a thermosetting resin is obtained by uniformly collecting chopped strands obtained by cutting glass fiber strands to a predetermined length.
A powdery binder such as an unsaturated polyester resin or the like is sprayed on the aggregate, solidified by heating, and then pressed to a predetermined thickness.

[0003] In the case where the reinforcing area by the glass fiber mat is large, a plurality of glass fiber mats may be spliced and used. In this case, in order to prevent the strength of the joint portion of the glass fiber mat from being lowered, the side portion of one glass fiber mat and the side portion of the other adjacent glass fiber mat are used in a state of being overlapped. However, there is a problem that only the overlapping portion becomes thicker than other portions, and a uniform thick product cannot be obtained. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, a glass fiber mat M having a tapered portion T whose thickness gradually decreases toward the end is provided on a side portion, and as shown in FIG.
By overlapping the side portions provided with each other and joining the glass fiber mats, the thickness uniformity of the overlapped portion and other portions is achieved. Conventionally, a glass fiber mat having such a tapered portion is formed by once forming a glass fiber mat having a uniform thickness throughout, and then removing a chopped strand on a side portion of the glass fiber mat to form a tapered portion. Manufacturing.

[0004]

However, the chopped strand once formed into a glass fiber mat cannot be easily removed because it is bonded and solidified by the binder as described above and is pressed. . Therefore, it is necessary to use a cutting device such as a rotating needle to remove the pressed and solidified chopped strands while shaving them off, which is extremely time-consuming.
Also, for the chopped strands that have been removed,
It is either disposed of or recycled, but in the case of disposal, the economic efficiency is low. In the case of recycling, the solidifying binder adhering to the chopped strands must be removed. There is a problem that a complicated process is required.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a glass fiber mat which can easily and efficiently manufacture a glass fiber mat having a tapered side portion.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems and objects, and is intended to cut a glass fiber strand into a predetermined length and accumulate it as a chopped strand.
After forming a tapered portion whose thickness gradually decreases toward the end at a position to be a side portion of the glass fiber mat with respect to the aggregate of the chopped strands, the binder is sprayed and solidified by heating to a predetermined thickness. The method for producing a glass fiber mat, characterized in that the pressing is performed in the following manner.

[0007]

In the present invention, after the chopped strands are accumulated and before the binder is sprayed, the chopped strands are removed to form a tapered portion at a position to be a side portion of the glass fiber mat, and the chopped strand is removed to form the tapered portion. Is not solidified or pressed and can be easily removed. Also, by pressing the aggregate after forming the tapered portion, the chopped strands removed at the time of forming the tapered portion can be scattered in the collecting portion other than the tapered portion, so that the chopped strands are not discarded. No special processing steps are required for recycling.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The production method of the present invention will be described below based on embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an apparatus for carrying out the manufacturing method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view along AA in FIG.

Reference numeral 10 denotes an accumulation chamber, 11 denotes a transport net, 12 denotes a chopped strand removing device, 13 denotes a binder feeder, 14 denotes an oven chamber, and 15 denotes a pressing roller.

Above the accumulation chamber 10, there is a supply port 17 provided with a cutter 16 for cutting the glass fiber strand S into a predetermined length. The transfer net 11 is for collecting the chopped strands C supplied from the supply port 17 while passing through the bottom of the collecting chamber 10. The chopped strand removing device 12 gradually reduces the thickness of the aggregate C 'of the chopped strands C, which are accumulated on the transporting net 11, toward the end at a position to be a side portion of the glass fiber mat M later. For forming the tapered portion T to be formed.
And a support arm 19 attached to the support guide 18 and a rotating brush 20 attached to the tip of the support arm 19. The support arm 19 can be moved on the support guide 18 via a guide roller, and the rotating brush 20 can be tilted on the support arm 19 via a worm gear. The degree of inclination can be adjusted. In this embodiment, the rotating brushes are arranged on both sides and the center of the stack C 'of the chopped strands C stacked in the stacking chamber 10, and two glass fiber mats M are manufactured from the stack C'. Although the case is shown, the aggregate C '
When the width of the glass fiber mat M is the same as the width of the glass fiber mat M, the rotating brushes 20 may be arranged only on both sides, and when three glass fiber mats M are manufactured from the aggregate C ', The rotating brushes 20 may be arranged on both sides of the body C 'and two places between them. The binder supply device 13 is for spraying a powdery binder such as an unsaturated polyester over the entire width of the integrated body C 'in which the tapered portion T is formed. This is for heating and softening the sprayed binder. The pressing roller 15 has a water cooling mechanism inside, and presses the stack C 'to a predetermined thickness while rapidly cooling the stack.

A method for manufacturing a glass fiber mat according to the present invention will be described using the apparatus having the above-described configuration.

The glass fiber strands S are continuously supplied to the supply port 17 of the accumulation chamber 10, cut into a predetermined length by the cutter 16, accumulated as chopped strands C on the transporting net 11, and collected. '. A tapered portion T is formed by the chopped strand removing device 12 at a position to be a side portion of the glass fiber mat M later on the stack C ′ unloaded from the stacking chamber 10 by the transfer net 11. The rotating brush 20 of the chopped strand removing device 12 is installed at a position suitable for a predetermined width of the glass fiber mat M, and the stack C 'on the transport net 11 comes into contact with the rotating brush 20 rotating at high speed, The chopped strand C is removed. FIG. 3 shows the state of contact with the rotating brush 20 at the side of the stack C ', and FIG. 4 shows the state of contact with the rotating brush 20 at the center of the stack C'. The rotating brushes 20 on both sides of the stack C 'remove the chopped strand C by bringing the bottom 20a of the rotating brush 20 inclined as shown in FIG. 3 into contact with the stack C'.
In addition, in particular, the tapered portions T, T must be adjacent to each other at the center of the integrated body C 'to form a substantially V-shaped groove. In this case, by adjusting the inclination angle of the rotating brush 20, By using the bottom portion 20a and the side peripheral portion 20b of the rotating brush 20, both tapered portions T, T can be formed at one time, and the stack C 'is formed with the center tapered portions T, T as a boundary. Separated into two. The chopped strands C of the stack C 'are simply stacked and not solidified or pressed, so that they can be easily removed by the rotating brush 20. Further, the chopped strands C removed by the high-speed rotation of the rotating brush 20 are scattered in an accumulation portion other than the tapered portion T of the accumulation body C ', so that the chopped strands C are not wasted and discarded. No special process is required. The binder is sprayed below the binder supply device 13 on the aggregate C 'in which the tapered portion T is formed in this manner,
Heat treatment is performed in the subsequent oven chamber 14 to soften the binder. Next, the stack C 'is quenched and pressed by the pressing roller 15, whereby the binder is solidified and the chopped strands C are adhered to each other to form a glass fiber mat M having a predetermined thickness. The glass fiber mat M having the tapered portion T formed on the side in this manner is wound by a winding roller.

[0014]

As described above, the present invention has an excellent effect that a glass fiber mat having a tapered portion on a side portion can be easily and efficiently manufactured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an apparatus for performing a manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view along AA in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of contact with a rotating brush on a side portion of an integrated body.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a state of contact with a rotating brush at the center of the stack.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a glass fiber mat having a tapered portion.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a state in which glass fiber mats having tapered portions are overlapped.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 accumulation chamber 11 transport net 12 chopped strand remover 13 binder supplier 14 oven chamber 15 pressing roller 16 cutter 17 supply port 18 support guide 19 support arm 20 rotating brush 20a bottom 20b side circumference C chopped strand C 'aggregate M Glass fiber mat S Glass fiber strand T Taper

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A glass fiber strand is cut into a predetermined length and collected as a chopped strand, and the thickness of the chopped strand is gradually increased toward an end at a position to be a side portion of the glass fiber mat. After forming the tapered portion to decrease, spray binder and solidify by heating,
A method for producing a glass fiber mat, comprising pressing to a predetermined thickness.