Abstract: Articles of a thermoplastic having an improved level of electromagnetic shielding are molded from plastic pellets that have a core of metalized glass fibers that are arranged to partially disperse through the molded article as individual fibers and partially to remain in clumps of generally aligned closely contacting fibers. The clumps have approximately the length of an individual fiber but they are substantially wider than an individual fiber. Improved conductivity is attributed to increased electrical bridging between fibers that is provided by the width of the clumps of fibers.

Abstract: A new plastic-metal composite material and method of preparing the material is disclosed. Fibers that are coated with metal form a matrix in the plastic that gives the composite material sufficient electrical and thermal conductivity for many applications. In a preferred embodiment of the new method of this invention, metal is formed on glass fibers by vacuum deposition and the metal coated fibers are combined with a selected plastic in a pellet form that is suitable for injection molding operations.