20100075126 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING THERMOPLASTIC PREPREG WITH SPECIFIC FIBRE ORIENTATION - An apparatus for producing single ply, continuous, cross ply or angle ply thermoplastic prepregs comprising means for feeding a tape of thermoplastic prepreg material into the apparatus and around at least one carrier means for positioning and aligning the tape to form a tube in such a way as to maintain substantially uninterrupted contact between the leading edge of the incoming tape of material and the receding edge of the previous wrap of the tape means for creating a cohesive transitional tube by joining the edges of adjacent wraps means for cutting the resulting cohesive transitional tube so as to produce at least one thermoplastic prepreg product with desired shape, size and ply fibre orientation and means for collecting the thermoplastic prepreg products so produced. | 03-25-2010 |