Technical Fibre Products microfiber support veils

Technical Fibre Products (TFP, Burneside, U.K.) has launched its range of next-generation surfacing and adhesive support veils, designed to offer superior flexibility and surface smoothness, and to supplement the company’s current Optiveil materials.

The next-generation veils are manufactured from a range of fiber types, including micro denier polyester and Kuraray’s WRAMP fiber (a polyester-polyamide hybrid). These microfibers have a finer diameter than TFP’s standard polyester products, measuring 4 and 5 μm compared to 12 and 7 μm respectively. This means there is significantly more fibers per gram of material — nearly 18 million fibers, vs. 2 million in TFP’s standard polyester nonwovens. This is said to produce a different, closer pore structure with a higher surface area. This is said to ultimately convey increased flexibility to the nonwoven and enhance its conformability to more complex shapes during composites manufacturing. TFP also says the pore structure refinement improves the surface smoothness as well processing ease; it also is said to minimize micro-porosity and micro-cracking.

TFP expects that the increased surface smoothness of these thermoplastic veils makes them even more suitable for use as adhesive carrier or support veils, an already popular application for TFP’s Optiveil materials. The fiber structure reportedly has been optimized to promote adhesive wet-out, ensuring a defined and consistent film thickness, as well as improving the resilience and handling of the final product.

TFP’s nonwovens are used in a range of composites applications ranging from aerospace and automotive to energy, transportation and sporting goods, fulfilling requirements for surfacing, electrical conductivity, EMI shielding, abrasion and corrosion resistance; they are also used to increase fracture toughness or act as an adhesive carrier.

This technology was on display at JEC World 2019.