Patent ID: 7005024

Claim:
A process for continuously manufacturing a rigid void-free composite product, comprising the steps of: preparing intimately blended commingled threads containing glass filaments and filaments of thermoplastic organic material; providing a strip of fabric made from the intimately blended commingled threads and a plurality of continuous threads including at least 80% by weight of the intimately blended commingled threads; continuously depositing onto a moving conveyor two layers, one of the two layers including said plurality of continuous threads in a form of at least one of continuous threads continuously deposited in a direction of movement of said moving conveyor, continuous threads continuously deposited in a form of superposed loops and continuous threads continuously deposited in a form of chopped threads, and the other one of the two layers including said strip of fabric; continuously transferring said two layers combined through a plurality of zones where said two layers are heated and cooled, while being sufficiently compressed to form a continuous rigid void-free composite material capable of being molded; and at least one of cutting up said rigid void-free continuous composite material into a plurality of sheets and winding said continuous rigid void-free composite material onto a rotating drum, wherein said glass filaments deposited in said process in total comprise more than 40% by weight of said glass filaments and said filaments of thermoplastic organic material deposited in said process.