Glass fiber mat reinforced plastic panels without the fiber readout defect

摘要

A method of making glass fiber mat reinforced RIM panels wherein glass fibers are kept away at a distance from the panel surface in a precisely controlled manner to avoid fiber readout defect. The method is carried out by molding glass fiber mats in a matched metal mold where at least one of the interior mold surface is etched with equally spaced, closely packed minute pockets or valleys of truncated pyramid shape. Fiber glass mat reinforced panels thus produced have a textured panel surface with a multiplicity of minute truncated pyramid like protuberances. Glass fibers are excluded from such protuberances to produce a panel surface without the fiber readout defect.