Apparatus and manufacturing method for in-situ impregnation of continuous fiber tows with thermoplastic resin for use in additive manufacturing.
Using raw materials (thermoplastic pellets and rolls of fiber tows), this invention will continuously impregnate fiber tows with molten thermoplastic resin for fabrication of custom composite shapes, unlike current methods, which do not use raw materials and are extremely expensive processes. The ‘In Situ’ process can be used to either directly “print” composite parts in an additive manufacturing approach or to manufacture pre-impregnated (prepreg) composite material for use in other manufacturing technologies.