Apparatus for the production of reinforcing non-woven fabrics for composites

Claim 1

A process for producing non-woven fabric reinforcement for composite material, comprising: continuously supplying a pair of selvage threads in horizontally spaced parallel relationship; laying down a continuous weft thread in a succession of spaced transverse reaches joined by selvage loops around the pair of selvage threads to form a weft sheet; nipping the selvage loops and selvage threads on both sides of said weft sheet and for conveying said weft sheet in a horizontal plane while tensioning the weft thread reaches laterally of the weft sheet; applying thermoplastic adhesive to the portions of the weft threads other than the selvage loops on only the portions of the weft threads facing outwardly of said weft sheet on at least one side of said thread as said weft sheet is being conveyed by means positioned along said nipping and conveying means; drying and melting the adhesive on the weft threads by heating means positioned along said nipping and conveying means downstream of said adhesive applying means; continuously supplying a warp sheet to said at least one side of said weft sheet at a position downstream of said heating means; preheating the warp threads of said warp sheet immediately before their arrival at the weft sheet to a temperature sufficient for adhesion to the thermoplastic adhesive on the weft threads by means adjacent the point at which said warp sheet is supplied to said weft sheet; continuously pressing the weft and warp sheets together for bonding the weft and warp threads of the respective sheets at the points of intersection thereof to form the non-woven fabric, the pressing including controlling the temperature of the surfaces of the pressing on the warp and weft sheets being at a temperature lower than the softening point of the adhesive; and winding the non-woven fabric into a roll.