Alternating Pressure Melt Impregnation Device for Continuous Fiber Composites
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing melt impregnation devices for continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic resin composites face issues with broken yarns, especially at high drawing speeds and with high resin viscosity, due to complex structures and velocity gradients, leading to inefficient impregnation and maintenance challenges.
Innovation Solution
An alternating pressure melt impregnation device with a fiber pre-dispersion area and a melt injection area featuring throttle plates with decompression chambers and resin melt runners, which applies alternating pressure to ensure uniform impregnation without rotating rollers, reducing shearing fields and preventing broken yarns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rotating rollers or gears are used to enhance resin melt flow and provide impregnating pressure, then impregnation effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases and broken yarn occurs due to velocity gradients and shearing fields
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the rotating rollers or gears from the impregnation area, extracting the source of complexity and broken yarn while maintaining impregnation effectiveness through an alternative mechanism involving a resin melt reservoir and pressure control system
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical rotating rollers/gears system with a pressure-controlled resin melt delivery system using a reservoir and nozzles, substituting mechanical shearing with controlled fluid pressure for impregnation
2Productivity
If rotating rollers or gears are used to squeeze resin melt onto fiber bundle, then impregnation rate is improved, but broken yarn is caused due to large velocity gradient and shearing field
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical squeezing by rotating rollers with a pressure-controlled resin melt delivery system that uses fluid pressure and controlled flow through nozzles to achieve impregnation without mechanical shearing
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the impregnation mechanism from mechanical contact and shearing to pressure-controlled fluid delivery, altering the physical parameters of the impregnation process to eliminate velocity gradients that cause broken yarn
3Reliability
If multiple rotating rollers or gears are present in impregnation area, then resin melt flow is enhanced, but cleaning and maintenance become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the rotating rollers or gears from the impregnation area, eliminating the components that are difficult to clean and maintain while preserving the essential function of resin melt delivery through a simplified nozzle-based system
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses stationary nozzles that can be easily replaced or cleaned, serving as simple copies of the resin melt delivery function previously performed by complex rotating components
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device achieves high impregnation rates and production stability with minimal broken yarns, even at high drawing speeds, and simplifies the structure for easier maintenance by eliminating the need for rotating rollers, ensuring effective resin distribution and infiltration.
Implementation Method 1
a flow of a resin melt in a fiber bundle takes place both in an axial direction and a radial direction of the fiber, similarly regarding as a fluid flowing in a porous medium, according to the Darcy law
Implementation Method 2
Alternating pressure melt impregnation device and melt impregnation method
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The present invention discloses an alternating pressure melt impregnation device and a melt impregnation method. A resin melt is squirted from each resin melt runner on an upper die and a lower die of a melt injection area, and thus the squirted resin melt is enable to be squirted directly on an upper surface and a lower surface of a continuous fiber bundle which is entering into an impregnation chamber. Impregnation and infiltration for both surfaces of the continuous fiber bundle are primarily completed by a squirted pressure. As the resin melt inside the impregnation chamber flows to a decompression chambers at both sides of the impregnation chamber, perturbation in different directions is generated, resulting in a varied direction of the resin melt infiltration is improved.