A fiberglass mat having high tear resistance which comprises a base or sheet made of chopped glass fibers, bonded together by a bonding agent. Randomly oriented, substantially continuous fiberglass strands may be embedded and bonded in the base, the strands being separated by layers of base material. The mat may also have one or more separate layers of longitudinal substantially continuous fiberglass strands, which may generally either be straight or sinusoidal, bonded into the base material.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This Application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 681,422, filed Apr. 29, 1976 now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to fiberglass mats which are usually provided in sheet form and may be marketed in a roll or formed into desired shapes. The fiberglass mats on the market today generally consist of a base of chopped glass fibers ranging in length from 1/4" to 11/4" and diameters ranging between 9 and 16 microns. The chopped glass fibers are usually bonded together by a suitable bonding agent, such as urea resins, phenolic resins, bone glue, polyvinyl alcohols, etc. Preferably, the bonding agent is water resistant. The glass fibers and the bonding agent are usually formed into a mat having a production width of approximately 36" to 48". The mat is passed through an oven in order to cure the bonding agent. There are two generally accepted methods today for making fiberglass mat: the dry method and the wet method.
In the dry method, elongated yarn strands, which are usually continuous, are often placed in the center area of the mat or sheet to provide tear resistance. Such an arrangement, however, has the disadvantage of causing layering, i.e., a separation of the mat into a plurality of laminae or sheets. This is caused by the central layer of yarns weakening the mat in mechanical strength and destroying its homogeneity, thus causing or allowing easy separation of the mat into two or more parts.
An example of a mat formed by means of the dry process, and a machine for forming that mat, has been shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,731,066 to Hogendobler, et al. Those patentees recognized that a mat consisting only of chopped fibers and a bonding agent resulted in a product with very little tear strength in any direction. Consequently, they proposed to install continuous strands of fiberglass in the product. They therefore proposed to develop a mat having reinforcing strands arranged in a haphazard pattern and, in addition, a plurality of parallel reinforcing strands. However, in that patent it is disclosed that the reinforcing strands of both types are randomly mixed, considered in vertical cross-section, into the resulting product, without providing for any separation between the different types of strands. In fact, in many instances either or both types of the reinforcing strands are positioned along, or extend to, one of the surfaces of the mat. Consequently, while those strands do provide additional strength, relative to a mat having only the chopped fiber bonded together, the resultant product is still insufficiently strong to withstand tearing under common usage.
In this country, for example, roofing materials are applied to new buildings at an extremely rapid rate. As a result, they must be able to withstand rather rough handling. In many instances, matting formed by the dry process and transformed into roofing materials, even using the Hogendobler reinforcing strands, is insufficiently strong to withstand the rough handling. This results from several reasons. One of the reasons is that dry chopped fiber does not disburse uniformally across the surface of the mat being produced, and thus the resultant product does not have uniform strength. Additionally, the reinforcing strands which are indiscriminately mixed throughout the thickness of the mat cause the resultant product to lack a proper homogeneity, with a resultant loss in tear resistance strength.
Consequently, it has been found that although the products formed in accordance with the Hogendobler disclosure are greatly improved over those which do not utilize reinforcing strands, they are still insufficiently strong to withstand rough handling and usage without making the mat so thick that the weight increase negates the original reason for using the reinforcing strands. In other words, since the randomyarn and straight yarns are not separated, the tear resistance strength, at least in some directions of tearing force application, is significantly reduced.
The wet process has been developed over the past few years in order to be able to produce fiberglass mat at a far more rapid rate than is available using the dry process. Initially, the process was developed to produce a product having only chopped fibers and bonding agent. Consequently, there was no significant tear strength in any direction for any suitable product. In many areas of the world, such as Europe, such mat is quite satisfactory for being transformed into roofing. Since construction proceeeds at a more leisurely pace in those areas, the handling of roofing materials is far more gentle and not so much strength is needed in the product. In this country, however, roofing must be produced at about three times the rate as it is produced in Europe and the resulting products must be strong enough to withstand the rough handling required by speed in application.
Consequently, it has become very desirable to be able to produce a fiberglass mat by the wet process having strength which at least meets and preferably exceeds that available through the dry process, such as taught by Hogendobler, et al.
As a further problem discovered in the prior art products, it has been found that there are some instances in which it is highly undesirable to use reinforcing strands which are installed in a straight line along the length of the mat being produced. During the production of matting, the strands are drawn from the spools by some mechanism and applied to the location of initial mat formation. As these strands are drawn from the spools, there is a possibility that, occasionally, the strand will "hang-up" temporarily until it can be pulled free by continued application of a pulling force. Such a hang-up might be caused, for example, by a slight snag in the line which causes it to bind against an adjacent winding of the strand on the spool. When this occurs, tension can be imposed on the entire line up to the point at which curing has finally occurred in the oven. This is closely analogous to what happens to a fishing line when a fisherman raises the tip of his rod to impose tension on the line. In the production of fiberglass mat, this imposition of tension on the longitudinal strand, even momentarily, usually causes a disruption and disorientation of the chopped fibers. Such disruption may occur in the fibers both above and below the strand. The result is a line of weakening extending along the entire mat from the point of finished curing to the initial mat formation location. It is very difficult to discern this line of weakening caused by such "fishlining".
if the mat having the weakened section is transformed into roofing, for example, the disorientation of the chopped fibers usually results in a "ripcord" or straight line crack developing along the length of the product. That line of weakness which develops into a crack can then cause a crack to develop in all of the layers of roofing material formed on a roof, whether above or below the mat section containing the crack. In fact, such continuous cracking has sometimes occurred in such a manner that it appeared that a vandal had pushed a circular handsaw along the length of the roof.
Obviously, this is an extremely dangerous possibility since the premature destruction of roofing materials can result in severe damage to a building. In most cases, it is impossible to prevent the cracking since the "fishlining" cannot be seen since there is no visible disorientation of the straight line strand, considered in a horizontal cross-sectional plane, at least.
In some instances, it may also be desirable to provide a mat having other than absolutely straight reinforcing strands. Such a need might arise from a finished product requirement relating to bending. For example, if bending occurs along a straight strand, that strand presents a very narrow reinforcing bend area and it will serve as a "ripcord" and allow the product to crack and/or break. On the other hand, a semi-straight or sine wave-type of strand configuration will present a much wider reinforcement. Consequently, any bending which may occur is far less likely to result in damage to the product.
As a result, it has become imperative to produce a fiberglass mat having a significant strength to resist tearing, is not susceptible to "fishline" or "ripcord" damage, and which can be produced at a very high speed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a fiberglass mat which meets all of the requirements of the preceding paragraph and does not have any of the deficiencies described with respect to the prior art.
One substantial use for fiberglass mat which is high in tear resistance in any direction, is in the manufacture of asphalt roofing, in which the fiberglass mat is substituted for the asphalt impregnated felt sheet now in common use. Such roofing made from a fiberglass mat has many advantages: it is fireproof and superior in quality and performance, and it requires the use of less asphalt than the standard roofing, all resulting in substantial cost savings.
Another use for the mat of the present invention is in connection with carpeting and flooring and also in plywood reinforcing, where the mat in sheet form may be placed between layers of plywood. Other uses for the invention may be found in non-corrosive products, battery separator mats, electrical laminates, wood surfacing, and in many other industries.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mat having high tear resistance in all directions. Further, it is preferred that the mat have adequate mechanical strength throughout its entire body of mixture of chopped glass and bonding agent so that the mat not only has a high tear resistance but also has high mechanical strength at the central portion so that layering, such as occurs in the prior art, is eliminated.
Mats formed in accordance with the present invention may include fiberglass strands, yarns, or slivers, embedded in the base of the mat in separate layers. Preferably, ample base material, such as chopped fibers and bonding agents, may be placed between the layers in order to provide mechanical strength in the central plane of the mat. At least some of the strands may be arranged in a randomly oriented pattern, with the strands being strong and highly resistant to tearing or severing. Thus, the mat may be provided with tear resistance, at least against forces imposed in a longitudinal direction relative to the mat.
Such mats may have such tear resistant strands installed in patterns which may be of a particular, desired size and shape. Such shapes might include, for example, a uniform circular pattern in which the circular portions join each other and are offset. Where such overlapping occurs, the portions of the yarn may be bonded together.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a mat of the type referred to in the preceding paragraphs in which there may be a separate layer of longitudinal strands of fiberglass embedded in the base, which layer gives extra strength to the mat to withstand tearing in a direction transverse to the major mat dimension. Such longitudinal strands may, in some applications at least, be substantially straight. This would be satisfactory, for example, when "ripcording" or "fishlining" will not create any significant problem in the product to be produced from the mat. Alternatively, however, the longitudinal strands can be laid into the mat in such a manner that they resemble a sine wave extending from one end of the mat to the other.
Such a sinusoidal configuration produces two advantages. Any "hanging-up" of the strand on the spool will result in the application of a tension force to the strand which will disorient the chopped fibers only through a very short length of the mat, such as a few inches. Further, such a disruption would be immediately evident to the naked eye because the relatively consistent sinusoidal pattern of the strand would suddenly be disrupted by a straight portion a few inches long. Of course, depending upon the severity of the "hang-up" it is quite possible that the chopped fibers might not even be disoriented at all. Further, the elimination of the straight reinforcing strand has proven to be a significant factor in the production of higher strength roofing shingles, for example. Those familiar with roofing shingles will realize that the exposed portion of the shingle is susceptible to repeated bending by the wind, at least until the bonding adhesive used to apply the shingle to a roof, becomes competely cured. A straight reinforcing strand in such a product may form a bend line or ripcord in the shingle which will result in a very rapid severing of the shingle along that natural bend line. Consequently, it can be seen that the sinusoidal configuration of the longitudinally oriented reinforcing strand can produce significant benefits over the substantially straight strand.
Upon reading the following detailed description, taken together with the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art will realize that fiberglass mat according to the present invention may be constructed in a variety of elemental combinations, many of which may not even resemble those discussed here but which, nevertheless, will employ the present invention as defined in the claims.
Reinforced thermoplastic polymer composite sheets, formable into smooth, shaped objects in a stamping process. The composite sheet is produced by laminating together (1) a first layer of thermoplastic resin containing short nonsiliceous fibers and a mineral filler such as kaolin, (2) a backing reinforcing layer comprising a long nonsiliceous fiber mat impregnated by thermoplastic resin and (3) optionally a third layer similar to said first layer. The long fiber mat is positioned within the reinforcing layer during impregnation, whereby the mat becomes encased in a resin matrix.
An aqueous binder composition suitable for bonding glass fibers in a porous random mat comprises a phenol-formaldehyde-urea condensate, starch, an emulsified thermoplastic resin, dimer acid, an emulsified oil and, optionally, an organosilane coupling agent. Such bonded mats are useful for impregnation or lamination with asphalt or resin compositions.
4755423 - Laminate - Owned by Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft (Frankfurt am Main,DE)
Laminates, which are composed of a preconsolidated synthetic fiber web and a preconsolidated mineral fiber web, which are bonded to each other by needling, are improved in respect of their dimensional stability, in particular in the transverse direction, when the preconsolidated mineral fiber wet contains reinforcing yarns of a mineral material and extending in the longitudinal direction. They are preferably used as carrier web for roofing and sealing webs.
What is provided herein is a glass fiber mat having a novel structure and high-strength properties which is particularly useful for roofing products, including built up roofing membranes and systems. The glass mat of the invention is comprised of two fibrous components, namely, individual filament glass fibers and extended glass fiber elements, which are formed in situ in a wet-laid process from original bundles of glass fibers. The individual filaments appear by conventional filamentation of the bundles. The extended fiber elements, however, are formed by longitudinal extension of a given bundle whose fibers are connected longitudinally. Thereby the effective length of a fiber element is very much greater than the length of the fibers therein. The fiber elements are further characterized by a non-uniform diameter, as contrasted to the fibers themselves, being thicker in the mid-section of the element where connection of fibers is maximized, and tapered towards its ends, where fiber connection is at a minimum. The extended fiber elements preferably predominate by weight of the fibrous content of the mat over the individual filaments. The desired ratio of the two components is achieved by using bundles whose fibers have a long length, and by very gentle agitation of the dispersion slurry for a short period of time.
A composite sheet material, useful as a component of roofing shingles, and a process of making same, which includes a glass fiber web bound with a thermosetting resin which includes a fatty acid amide having the structural formula RCOONH.sub.2, where R is a C.sub.8 C.sub.25 alkyl.
