Patent ID: 7897083

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a liquid crystalline resin composition containing both a hollow filler and a fibrous filler that is suitable for injection molding to form an article of reduced density, said composition comprising a liquid crystalline resin, 5 to 30% by weight of hollow filler and 10 to 20% by weight of glass fibrous filler having a weight average fiber length of about 200 μm to about 700 μm, said method using a melting-kneading extruder provided with a screw, comprising a step of: (1) feeding said liquid crystalline resin from a main feed port located at upstream side in the extruding direction, while feeding said hollow filler and said glass fibrous filler from a side feed port located at downstream side in the extruding direction; and satisfying the conditions of: L1>3.5, 4<L2<9, 2<La<6, Lb>5, and 4<Lc<9, where: (2) L 1 designates the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the distance between the position of the side feed port and the position where the internal pressure of the extruder reaches 0.1 MPa; (3) L 2 designates the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the length of maintaining the internal pressure of the extruder at or above 0.1 MPa after feeding said hollow filler and said glass fibrous filler; and (4) La designates the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the length of the resin plasticizing zone, (5) Lb designates the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the distance between the position of the side feed port and the downstream position where kneading begins, and (6) Lc designates the ratio L/D in which L is the length of the kneading zone and D is the screw diameter, and wherein at least 67% of said hollow filler that is fed from said side port and is present within the resulting liquid crystalline resin composition remains unbroken at the conclusion of said method and is present therein together with said glass fibrous filler that also was fed from said side port.