PROCESS FOR FORMING A COMPOSITE STRUCTURE OF THERMOPLASTIC POLYMER AND SHEET MOLDING COMPOUND

摘要

TITLEA PROCESS FOR FORMING A COMPOSITE STRUCTURE OFTHERMOPLASTIC POLYMER AND SHEET MOLDING COMPOUNDABSTRACTA process for making a rigid compositestructure with a thermoplastic polymer surface by:a. thermoforming a thermoplastic polymericsheet into a three dimensional structure;the sheet has a primary glass transitiontemperature that is at least 10°C greaterthan the molding temperature of step c.below;b. placing the thermoformed structure and acharge of sheet molding compound (SMC) in amold andc. heating the charge and thermoformedstructure under pressure in the mold to curethe SMC and to adhere the SMC to thethermoformed structure, where the moldingtemperature is at least 10°C below theprimary glass transition temperature of thethermoplastic polymeric sheet;the resulting composite structure which can befinished with a paint or a layer of clear coat andcolor coat also is part of the invention.