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SHIMTEQ™ TP CA140ST is a thin ply prepreg sheet (our product SHIMTEQ™ TP CA140/CF+PA6), made by our advanced thin ply technology, then slit to a specified width.

By applying pressure and temperature above the melting point of the resin when laminating, the layers can be welded. It can be used as a material for auto tape laying (ATL), press or autoclave molding process. As an example, Fig. 2 shows a pipe-shaped laminate made by ATL, using SHIMTEQ™ TP CA140ST with fiber orientation in four directions (0°, 90°, +45°, -45°). In addition to this example, there is another actual case in which slit tape was used as braided configuration, and then pipes were formed. After lay-up in this way, the laminate is heated and pressurized for resin impregnation, and cooled and demolded to obtain high-strength and high-rigidity molded composite products.

The unique feature of SHIMTEQ™ TP CA140ST is its very thin configuration as less than 0.04mm thickness. Thinner laminates are more easily heated, therefore continuous welding process like ATL can be stable. The products are available in standard widths of 3, 5, and 10 mm, but can be designed by 0.1 mm increments upon customer’s request. Furthermore, the winding method of slit tape can be selected record or traverse winding, as shown in Fig.3 or Fig.4 respectively.

The tape shown here uses PA6 as the resin, but it can be changed according to the characteristics required for the product, and the type of carbon fiber, thickness, and Vf (fiber volume fraction) can be also customized. The material design flexibility enables customers to achieve new solutions.

Cover picture (Fig. 1): Thin ply thermoplastic prepreg slit tape SHIMTEQ™ TP CA140ST – Shindo