Patent ID: 7892379

Claim:
A process of forming an impact resistant component comprising, in order: arranging a plurality of monoaxially drawn fiber elements substantially parallel to one another along a common fiber direction to form a unidirectional sheet, wherein the fiber elements comprise a core of a strain oriented polymer and one surface layer of a heat fusible polymer covering at least a portion of one side of the core, wherein the surface layer is characterized by a softening temperature below that of the core to permit fusion bonding upon application of heat, wherein the fiber elements are arranged such that the surface layers of the monoaxially drawn fiber elements are on one side of the unidirectional sheet forming the surface layer side of the unidirectional sheet and the cores of the fiber elements are on the opposite side of the unidirectional sheet forming the core side of the unidirectional sheet; stacking in order: a first unidirectional sheet; an adhesive layer; and, a second unidirectional sheet, wherein the core side of the first unidirectional sheet and the core side of the second unidirectional sheet face the adhesive layer, wherein the adhesive layer has a softening point lower than the surface layer of the fiber elements, and wherein the monoaxially drawn fibers in the first and second unidirectional sheets have the same common fiber direction; activating the adhesive layer adhering the first and second unidirectional sheets and the adhesive layer together to form a composite sheet, wherein activating the adhesive layer comprises heating the adhesive layer to a temperature at or above the softening temperature of the adhesive layer, wherein the surface layer side of the first unidirectional sheet and surface layer side of the second unidirectional sheet form the exterior surface of the composite sheet; stacking at least two (2) composite sheets; applying heat to the stacked composite sheets to bond the surface layers of the fiber elements on the exterior surface of one composite sheet to the surface layers of the fiber elements on the exterior surface of an adjacent composite sheet together.