CARBON FIBERS

The present invention refers to a process for making a profile through a poltrusion or pultrusion process, using carbon fibers.

Profiles made through a poltrusion process are known, by using a plastic reinforced material, for example through glass fibers or carbon fibers.

For the connection of such known profiles, it is necessary to use assembling systems comprising joint or glued elements, for example threaded bushes glued to the profile, not being it possible to perform drilling and/or threading of the profile simply and with reduced times, to perform a quick and cheap connection of the profiles.

Object of the present invention is providing a profile made through a poltrusion process, which allows performing a quick and cheap connection of the profiles.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will result from the following description, are obtained with a profile made through a poltrusion process as claimed in the independent claim. Preferred embodiments and nontrivial variations of the present invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims.

It is intended that all enclosed claims are an integral part of the present description.

It will be immediately obvious that numerous variations and modifications (for example related to shape, sizes, arrangements and parts with equivalent functionality) can be made to what is described, without departing from the scope of the invention as contained in the enclosed claims .

The present invention will be better described by a preferred embodiment thereof, provided as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a sectional view of a profile according to the present invention.

With reference to the Figure, a preferred embodiment of the profile made through a poltrusion process of the present invention is shown and described.

The process for making a profile according to the present invention is a poltrusion or pultrusion process, which comprises the following steps:

a step of preparing the materials, in which reinforcing fibers, for example glass fibers or carbon fibers, and a plastic material, in a preferred way polyester, are prepared, preferably as filaments, for obtaining a stratification of the materials, wherein the plastic material is surrounded by the reinforcing fibers;

a step of impregnating the reinforcing fibers and the plastic material with a resin which composes the polymeric matrix, preferably an epoxy resin or another resin of a known type for the poltrusion (for example polyester resin, vinyl- ester resin, methacrylate resin and polyurethane resins and possible known additives) ;

a step of introducing the impregnated material into a poltrusion die, in order to keep the plastic material surrounded by the reinforcing fibers;

- a step of heating the die for obtaining the polymerization of the resin;

a step of continuously extracting the profile from the die, performed by keeping the filaments of plastic material longitudinally arranged along the extraction direction, to form inside the extracted profile a longitudinal insert 15 made of plastic material , surrounded by the reinforced material made of carbon fiber;

a step of cutting the profile to make a profile of the desired length.

With reference to the Figure, a profile 10 is described, obtained with the process of the invention, which comprises at least one longitudinal groove 11, at least one recess 12, 16 longitudinally arranged to the profile 10 and in parallel with such groove 11, at least one longitudinal insert 15 arranged internally to the profile 10, longitudinally with respect thereto, and in parallel to said groove 11 and recess 12, 16.

The longitudinal insert 15 is formed with a material, preferably a plastic material, for example polyester, which is different from the material with which the profile 10 is formed, preferably carbon fiber, and is completely surrounded by a thickness of the material with which the profile 10 is formed; the material with which the longitudinal insert 15 is formed is easy to drill and thread and therefore composes a drilling area of the profile 10, in which drillings and/or threading of the profile 10 can be performed easily and with reduced times, for obtaining a quick and cheap connection of the profiles.

In a preferred way, the longitudinal insert 15 is surrounded by walls which are configured to form at least one groove 11 and/or at least one recess 12, 16; preferably, the longitudinal insert 15 has a circular cross section; in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the profile 10 comprises a plurality of grooves 11 and recess 12, 16.

Preferably, the profile 10 of the invention comprises a central recess 16 with a substantially rectangular section and two longitudinal inserts 15, each surrounded by three grooves 11.

Advantageously, the process for making a profile according to the invention allows making a fiber profile, for example carbon fiber, which allows performing a simple and cheap connection of the profiles, due to the presence of the longitudinal insert 15 which composes a drilling area of the profile 10, in which drillings and/or threading can be performed simply and with reduced times.