Manufacturing method for low-bulk toughened fabrics for low-pressure molding processes

摘要

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a fabric. A fiber layer (400) and a porous bonding layer (402) are formed to form a unidirectional lay-up of fibers (404). The lay-up of fibers is heated under pressure to form a unidirectional composite tape (408) of desired thickness to substantially maintain the fibers in a desired configuration. The unidirectional composite tape is slit to a desired width, and the slit unidirectional composite tape is loaded into a multiaxial fabric machine. A first layer (414) is built from the composite tape in the multiaxial machine, and a second layer (416) is built from the composite tape on the first layer at a predetermined angle from the first layer in the multiaxial machine. The first and second layers are consolidated to form a composite fabric (418) in a continuous process.