Thermoplastic bicomponent‐fibers for organosheets via inline polymerization

Abstract State‐of‐the‐art organosheets suffer from several shortcomings that limit their applicability in high‐performance materials, mainly due to the imperfect combination of glass fibers and polymer. To overcome these issues, a novel hybrid fiber is presented, in which every single filament consists of a glass core and an individual, thin, thermoplastic polymer coating. Those fibers can immediately be consolidated into organosheets, without the necessity of the critical combination step. Production is realized by an ultra‐rapid inline coating of the filaments, incorporated into a standard spinning system. This solvent‐free process is realized by coating of the fibers with a tailor‐made, monomeric precursor solution, which is radiation‐polymerized immediately after application. Within fractions of a second, the coating layer is thus solidified, before coiling of the hybrid fiber. Due to the very low thickness of the coating and specific formulation of the precursor, tackless layers can be achieved before the coiling, even at industrial spinning speeds. Highlights Glass fibers are coated with a thermoplast via in situ polymerization. A precursor is developed which polymerizes in 100 ms. Glass fibers are coated completely with thermoplast by using a UV tunnel. Spinning velocities of about 600 m/min can be achieved. Hybrid fibers are consolidated into glass fiber‐reinforced plastics (GFRP).