Toray Industries, Inc.

Eisuke Wadahara

Ichiro Taketa

Akihiko Kitano

Ikuo Horibe

Soichi Ishibashi

Masahiro Yamanouchi

Akira Nishimura

Masato Honma

Tamotsu Suzuki

Takafumi Hashimoto

Kenichi Yoshioka

Toshihide Sekido

Kiyoshi Homma

Masaaki Yamasaki

Narumichi Sato

Hiroshi Odani

Yasutaka Okano

Yasumoto Noguchi

Fumiaki Noma

Yasunori Nagashima

Nobuo Asahara

Yuji Kojima

Shinya Takeuchi

Takeru Sasaki

Shigeru Miyamoto

Kyoko Miyamoto, Legal Representative

Kenichi Takezawa

Kuniyoshi Kurihara

Kazuhiro Ohno

Masayoshi Morihara

Rinako Eto

Kazuaki Funada

Koichi Antoku

Hiroki Ninomiya

A fuel cell gas diffusion layer includes:

Fuel-cell gas diffusion layer, and method of producing same

A process for producing a sheet-shaped prepreg includes: a fiber bundle introduction step in which tape-shaped reinforcing fiber bundles are disposed in a multilayer arrangement in the thickness direction and introduced into a die to which a molten thermoplastic resin has been supplied; a fiber bundle thickness reduction step in which each of the tape-shaped reinforcing fiber bundles is widened by means of spreading to reduce the thickness; a resin impregnation step in which the tape-shaped reinforcing fiber bundles are impregnated with the molten resin in the die; and a lamination step in which the plurality of resin-impregnated tape-shaped reinforcing fiber bundles are laminated in the die.

Process and apparatus for producing sheet-shaped prepreg

A composite prepreg base includes a raw prepreg base comprising a fiber sheet including discontinuous reinforcing fibers arranged in one direction and having a fiber length of 1-300 mm and a matrix resin infiltrated into the fiber sheet; and an additional resin layer formed on at least one surface of the raw prepreg base. The composite prepreg base is produced by a process including (i) the step of preparing the raw prepreg base and (ii) the step of forming an additional resin layer on at least one surface of the raw prepreg base prepared. A layered base includes two or more sheets of the composite prepreg base which have been superposed so that the additional resin layer is present on at least one surface; and a fiber-reinforced plastic formed by heating and pressing the layered base.

Process for producing composite prepreg base, layered base, and fiber-reinforced plastic

A laminated base material includes a lamination and integration of prepreg base materials each of which includes many reinforcing fibers arranged substantially in one direction and a matrix resin adhered to the reinforcing fibers, wherein at least one of the laminated prepreg base materials is formed with a prepreg base material having, throughout its whole surface, many incisions each extending in a direction crossing the reinforcing fibers, substantially all of the reinforcing fibers divided by incisions, and wherein a length L of each of reinforcing fiber segments formed by the incisions is 10 to 100 mm, a thickness H of the prepreg base material is 30 to 300 &#x3bc;m, and a fiber volume content Vf of the reinforcing fibers is 45 to 65% and arranging directions of the reinforcing fibers between one and another laminated prepreg base materials have at least two directions different each other.

Prepreg base material, layered base material, fiber-reinforced plastic, process for producing prepreg base material, and process for producing fiber-reinforced plastic

A composite prepreg base which includes a raw prepreg base comprising a fiber sheet comprising discontinuous reinforcing fibers arranged in one direction and having a fiber length of 1-300 mm and a matrix resin infiltrated into the fiber sheet; and an additional resin layer formed on at least one surface of the raw prepreg base. The composite prepreg base is produced by a process including (i) the step of preparing the raw prepreg base and (ii) the step of forming an additional resin layer on at least one surface of the raw prepreg base prepared. Also provided are: a layered base including two or more sheets of the composite prepreg base which have been superposed so that the additional resin layer is present on at least one surface; and a fiber-reinforced plastic formed by heating and pressing the layered base.

A prepreg base material includes reinforcing fibers arranged substantially in one direction and a matrix resin between the reinforcing fibers, wherein the prepreg base material has substantially throughout its entire surface incisions, each incision extending in a direction substantially crossing the reinforcing fibers, wherein substantially all of the reinforcing fibers are divided by the incisions, a length (L) of each of reinforcing fiber segments formed by the incisions is in the range of 10 to 100 mm, a thickness H of the prepreg base material is in the range of 30 to 300 &#x3bc;m, and a fiber volume content by Vf of the reinforcing fibers is in the range of 45 to 65%.

A chopped fiber bundle includes a large number of unidirectionally arranged reinforced fibers. The length of each of the reinforced fibers is in the range of 5 to 100 mm. The chopped fiber bundle has a transition segment in which the number of the reinforced fibers increases toward the central part of the chopped fiber bundle in the aligned direction of the reinforced fibers with both ends in the aligned of the reinforced fibers in the chopped fiber bundle being a starting point. The level of a change in total sectional area of the large number of reinforced fibers is not more than 0.05 mmper mm in the aligned direction of the reinforced fibers over the whole area in the longitudinal direction of the chopped fiber bundle.

Chopped fiber bundle, molding material, and fiber reinforced plastic, and process for producing them

A preform, formed with a plurality of reinforcing fiber substrates stacked to each other and each made of at least reinforcing fiber yarns, has a resin material, whose main component is a thermoplastic resin, interlaminated between the layers of the reinforcing fiber substrates in the preform, and has through holes extending through a plurality of the reinforcing fiber substrates in the thickness direction of the preform; an FRP molded using this preform; and processes for producing these. By improving the impregnability in the thickness direction of the preform, an FRP excellent both in various mechanical properties and in matrix resin impregnation and stabler in quality can be produced with high productivity.

Processes for producing perform and FRP

A fiber-reinforced plate-like plastic having a plate and a protrusion rising on the plate, wherein the plate and the protrusion each contain a laminated structure composed of plural reinforcing fiber sheets which each include many fibers of 10 to 100 mm in fiber length arranged in a fixed direction and at least two of the layers constituting the laminated structure are different in the direction of arrangement of reinforcing fibers and wherein at least part of the reinforcing fibers extend continuously from the plate to the protrusion and at least one of the layers constituting the laminated structure of the protrusion has a shape similar to the shape of the protrusion; and a process for the production of fiber-reinforced plastic which includes cutting a unidirectional prepreg sheet composed of many reinforcing fibers arranged in a fixed direction and a matrix resin into prepreg base material sheets with the above fiber length, laminating the prepreg base material sheets with the directions of arrangement of reinforcing fibers of the base material sheets being different from each other to form a prepreg laminate, and heating and pressure-molding this laminate in a mold provided with a recess for forming the production.

Fiber-reinforced plastic and process for production thereof

The present invention has an object of providing a method for producing a carbon fiber woven fabric in which the length of each warp yarn made of a carbon fiber strand is uniform, weft yarns are straightly arranged without waviness, and that is excellent in quality can be obtained with high productivity (production speed), and is characterized that a method for producing a carbon fiber woven fabric using an air jet loom in which heald in a shedding motion has an angle of repose in a range of 0 to 50&#xb0; when weaving a uni-directional carbon fiber woven fabric woven with a carbon fiber strand having a fineness of 400 to 6,000 tex as the warp yarn and an auxiliary fiber having a fineness of &#x2155; or less of the carbon fiber strand as the weft yarn.

Method for producing carbon fiber woven fabric

A method for producing a reinforcing fiber woven fabric of the invention is a method for producing a reinforcing fiberfor weaving the reinforcing fiber as at least a warp. The yarn width of at least the warpconstituting the woven fabric is widened in the direction of the weftby reciprocating cylindrical bodiesin the direction of the warpof the woven fabric while rolling the cylindrical bodiesin a pressurization state to the woven fabric A apparatus for producing a reinforcing fiber woven fabric of the invention comprising: a guide rollerwhich comes into contact with the surface of a reinforcing woven fabric continuously passing through at a predetermined winding angle and rotates; a plurality of cylindrical bodiesrotatably supported on the woven fabric which comes into contact with the surface of the guide roller; and driving partstofor reciprocating the cylindrical bodies in the direction of the warpof the woven fabric.

Method and equipment for manufacturing reinforced fiber textile

A carbon fiber reinforced substrate comprising a fabric composed of carbon fiber bundles and a first resin adhering to the fabric. Each of the carbon fiber bundles comprises numerous continuous carbon filaments, has the tensile modulus of 210 GPa or more, and has the fracture strain energy of 40 MJ/mor more. The amount of the first resin adhering to the fabric is in a range from 1 to 20 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of said fabric. A preform comprising a laminate composed of plural layers of the carbon fiber reinforced substrate, wherein the layers are integrated by means of the first resin. A composite comprising the preform impregnated with a matrix resin.

Carbon fiber reinforced base material, preform and composite material comprising the same

This invention relates to a method for manufacturing a large FRP member including: disposing a preform containing a reinforcing fiber on a surface of a molding die; covering a molding portion with a bagging material or a mold and providing a suction port and a resin injection port for sealing; evacuating the molding portion through the suction port; heating the molding portion; injecting a thermosetting resin from the resin injection port for impregnating the reinforcing fiber with the resin while a temperature Tm of the molding die and a temperature Tv of the bagging material or the mold are both set to room temperature or more, and a difference &#x394;T in temperature between the Tm and the Tv is set to 10&#xb0; C. or less; and curing the resin by maintaining the molding portion at a predetermined temperature Tpc which is equal to or more than room temperature.

Method for producing upsized FRP member

The present invention relates to carbon fiber reinforced resin compositions comprising the following essential components (A), (B) and (C), and to molding compounds and molded products made by processing and molding the carbon fiber reinforced resin composition; Component (A): 0.01 to 0.7% by weight of vapor grown carbon fiber and/or nanotubes based on 100% by weight of the carbon fiber reinforced resin composition, of which the average diameter of single fiber ranges from 1 to 45 nm; Component (B): 6 to 40% by weight of carbon fiber based on 100% by weight of the carbon fiber reinforced resin composition, of which the average diameter of single fiber ranges from 1 to 20 &#x3bc;m; and Component (C): resin. The present invention provides carbon fiber reinforced resin composition, molding compounds and molded products therefrom, having good conductivity, mechanical properties and moldability by the above constitution.

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Ehime, Japan

Eisuke Wadahara