Method for sizing glass fibers

Claim 1

Method of producing flowable wet chopped glass fiber strands comprising: attenuating glass fibers from molten cones of glass from a bushing, applying an aqueous sizing composition to the glass fibers, where the composition has one or more cationic lubricants, one or more water soluble or dispersible nonpolymeric amide compounds selected from the group consisting of urea (carbamide), methyl urea; 1,3-diethyl urea; 1,3-diaminourea (carbohydrazide); methylurea; acetyleneurea; acetylenediurea; melamine; acetamide; propionic amide up to caproamide; and diamides of saturated dicarboxylic acids and sebacamide, and semicarbazide, carbohydrazide, cabamidourea, allophanamide (biuret) and 1-carbomoylsemicarbamide (biurea) in an effective amount to provide moisture control of the wet chopped glass fibers in the range of about 9 to about 20 weight percent of the chopped glass fibers, and one or more water soluble or dispersible polyols that comprises a predominant amount of the nonaqueous components of the sizing composition, and water in a major amount of the aqueous sizing composition, gathering the glass fibers into one or more strands, chopping the glass fiber strands to produce wet chopped glass fiber strands having a moisture content in the range of at least 9 to about 20 weight percent of the chopped strand.