Ultrasonic welding of prepreg tape

Abstract

A process for forming a spliced prepreg tape by joining adjacent ends () of a first and a second prepreg tape (), each prepreg tape comprising a respective first and second prepreg layer () comprising fibrous material and curable thermosetting resin, each prepreg tape further comprising a respective first and second releasable polymeric backing sheet (), the process involving: peeling of the first polymeric backing sheet from the first prepreg layer, so as to provide a first peeled end region, and optionally peeling of the second polymeric backing sheet from the second prepreg layer, so as to provide a first peeled end region (), and optionally a second peeled end region (), over which peeled end region or regions the prepreg layer is separated from its respective polymeric backing sheet; overlapping the first and second prepreg tapes at the first peeled end region, and if present the second peeled end region, so as to form a preliminary spliced join (), the preliminary spliced join comprising first and second adjacent layers of prepreg and first and second adjacent layers of polymeric backing sheet; ultrasonically welding of the preliminary spliced join () to merge together the first and second adjacent layers of prepreg and to merge together the two adjacent layers of polymeric backing sheet to form the spliced prepreg tape.