Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Keiichi Satoh

Kenji Hamabe

Masataka Kumata

Kazuhiro Miura

Masato Ishibashi

Tomohiro Sakuraba

Hiroshi Kiyomoto

A process for the high speed production of fiber reinforced plastic moldings forms several preforms which are solidified with chopped fibers, resin powders and a binder and are held between two preheating plates. Each plate is formed of a thin metal plate and will preheat the preforms to a temperature higher than the melting point of the resin. While the preforms are held between the preheating plates, the preforms are cold-pressed in a mold maintained at a temperature lower than the melting point of the resin for simultaneous impregnation and cooling of the resin. In addition, a preforming mold is placed in a vacuum chamber and precut chopped fibers are positioned in a tank. The preforming mold is placed into the tank and an exhauster is actuated to vacuumize both the vacuum chamber and the preforming mold, thereby adsorbing the chopped fibers in the tank onto the preforming mold and forming on the surface of the preforming mold an unsolidified preform comprising the chopped fibers. Resin powders are sprayed onto the preform for adsorption. A binder is subsequently applied under reduced pressure onto the preform. After drying the preform, the chopped fibers along with the binder are solidified.

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Saitama, Japan

Keiichi Satoh