Patent ID: 8486321

Claim:
A method of making a unitary polymer article comprising a polymeric body reinforced with one or more woven fiber layers and a polymeric covering layer comprising aligned carbon nanotubes, the covering layer being co-extensive with and bonded to an intended visible surface of the polymeric body for providing visual surface smoothness thereto, the method comprising: forming a prepreg layer by infiltrating a woven fiber layer with a liquid precursor composition of a thermosetting polymer and then B-staging or partially curing the liquid precursor composition, the woven fiber layer comprising fiber tows generally evenly spaced by between 1-5 millimeters; forming a prepreg layup by assembling one or more prepreg layers, the layup having an intended visible surface; placing a covering layer on the intended outer visible surface of the prepreg layup, the covering layer having opposing surfaces and comprising an array of aligned carbon nanotubes generally uniformly spaced by between 30-300 nanometers, the covering layer being formed by infiltrating the array of carbon nanotubes with a thermosetting polymer composition compatible with that of the prepreg and then B-staging or partially curing the thermosetting polymer composition to a curable state, the carbon nanotubes extending from opposing surface to opposing surface of the covering layer, the carbon nanotubes in the placed covering layer standing upright and substantially perpendicular to the intended visible surface of the prepreg layup and its one or more woven fiber layers, and the covering layer lying in face-to face contact with and coextensive with the intended visible surface of the prepreg layup; molding and consolidating the placed covering layer and prepreg layup to an intended shape and thickness of the polymer article while ensuring intimate contact between the facing layers and then curing the two thermosetting polymer compositions to form the unitary polymer article having a permanently bonded polymeric covering layer and polymeric body; and cooling the resulting unitary polymer article comprising the polymeric body and the nanotube-containing polymeric covering layer, the nanotube-containing covering layer providing smoothness to the intended visible surface of the article.