Patent ID: 8357320

Claim:
A process for the impregnation of free-flowing bundles of carbon fibers with a curable resin present in liquid form, the process comprising the following steps: providing parallel carbon fibers; providing a bundle thickness having a value in a range from 0.15 to 0.4 mm, a bundle length having a value in a range from 6 to 15 mm, and a bundle width having a value in a range from 0.5 to 3.5 mm; keeping the free-flowing carbon fiber bundles in a mechanically generated fluidized bed during impregnation with the curable resin; and providing a carbonized binder for holding the carbon fibers together in the free-flowing carbon fiber bundles; keeping the free-flowing carbon fiber bundles in the fluidized bed until the resin has been cured or at least dried in filled pores, of the free-flowing carbon fiber bundles, formed during carbonization of the binder, so that the bundles no longer stick together.