Abstract: Dried bundles of chopped glass fibers that may be used in compression and injection molding applications is provided. The chopped glass fiber bundles are formed of individual glass fibers positioned in a substantial parallel orientation. The dried chopped glass fiber bundles may be prepared by applying a size composition to attenuated glass fibers, splitting the fibers to obtain a desired bundle tex, chopping the wet glass bundles to a discrete length, and drying the wet glass bundles in a dielectric oven. Alternatively, the dried chopped glass bundles may be prepared by sizing attenuated glass fibers, passing the sized fibers through a heat transfer chamber where air heated by a bushing is drawn into the heat transfer chamber to dry the glass fiber bundles, splitting the dried, sized glass fiber bundles to obtain a desired bundle tex, and chopping the dried bundles of glass fibers.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved method of forming continuous filament mat (CFM) at greater through-put while maintaining or improving product quality by use of a synchronized draw process. The synchronized draw process provides CFM having improved weight variation, structure and tensile strength is capable of operating at increased mat line speed. CFM produced may have controlled mat density, MD density variation, CM density variation, MD tensile strength and CM tensile strength by controlling the period, frequency and interval of the deposited fiber strands. Using the synchronization technology of the present invention it is possible to control the tensile strength ratio (MD/CD) to meet a specific customer need by adjusting the LFR, frequency, period, and line speed. The method of the present invention provides for increasing the throughput of specialized and costly CFM manufacturing equipment without substantial expenditure.