| abstract |
A method of manufacturing a moulding compound for producing fibre-reinforced plastics articles makes use of scrap prepreg material, i.e. carbon, aramid or other fibre material pre-impregnated with a thermosetting plastics material in a partly cured state. The scrap material, which may be in the form of woven or unidirectional cloth, or fibre tows or braid, is cooled at least to a temperature of -50 degrees C and milled at low temperature to yield fragments of the fibre/plastics mixture in which the average filament length is preferably in the range of from 1 to 2mm. These fragments substantially retain the fibre-to-plastics matrix proportions of the original material and can be used in a dough-moulding process to yield isotropic fibre reinforced plastics articles of complex shape. |