Patent ID: 8273286

Claim:
A method of making a composite material, comprising: rotating a kicker roller driven by a motor adjacent to an entry gap, the kicker roller having an inlet area and an outlet area; filling the inlet area of kicker roller with a resin matrix such that the driven rotating kicker roller draws the resin matrix into the entry gap and forces the resin matrix into the outlet area; adding a composite fiber charge to the resin matrix in the inlet area to be drawn into the entry gap by the rotating kicker roller along with the resin matrix; substantially enclosing the outlet area with at one blade, side walls, and the kicker roller to form a pressure zone in order to develop increased pressure on the resin matrix; and forcing the composite fiber charge impregnated with the resin matrix from an outlet gap of the pressure zone; wherein the increased pressure of the resin matrix assists impregnation of the resin matrix into the composite fiber charge and forms a barrier excluding air.