Method of increasing loft in a porous fiber reinforced thermoplastic sheet

摘要

A method of fabricating a porous, fiber-reinforced thermoplastic sheet having increased lofting properties is provided. The method includes adding reinforcing fibers having an average length of about 5 mm to about 50 mm, and thermoplastic resin powder particles to an agitated aqueous foam to form a dispersed mixture, laying the dispersed mixture of reinforcing fibers and thermoplastic resin particles down onto a support structure, evacuating the water to form a web, generating a z-axis orientation of a portion of the reinforcing fibers, heating the web above the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic resin, and pressing the web to a predetermined thickness to form a porous thermoplastic composite sheet having a void content of about 1 percent to about 95 percent.