GB844939A - Metal-plastic combinations and methods for making same - Google Patents

Abstract

844,939. Laminates; agglutinated fibrous materials; impregnated bearing surfaces. ARMOUR RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Jan. 4, 1957 [Jan. 18, 1956], No. 412/57. Drawings to Specification. Class 140. [Also in Group XXXVI] Plastic material is admixed with strands or filaments of cast metal, that is strands or filaments obtained by extruding molten metal in the form of round filaments or narrow ribbons and cooling them. The metal may be lead, tin, zinc, aluminium, copper and their alloys as well as ferrous metals and their alloys. The plastic material may be a cellulose derivative, e.g. an ether, ester or mixed etherester, a natural or synthetic resin, e.g. a vinyl resin, polyethylene, polytetrafluorethylene, polystyrene, urea-formaldehyde, phenol-formaldehyde, melamine-formaldehyde, epoxy or polyester resin, natural rubber, gutta-percha, rubber latex or a synthetic rubber, e.g. polybutadiene or "Buna" (Registered Trade Mark), or polymonochlorotrifluorethylene. Articles may be produced by casting or extruding the plastic material in the form of sheets or films and laminating the sheets or films or shaping by vacuum moulding, compression moulding, injection moulding or casting, the cast metallic strands being introduced into the plastic composition before, during or after the moulding. The cast metal strands may be sized with, e.g. nitrocellulose lacquer, resorcinolformaldehyde or melamine-formaldehyde resin. A system of parallel cast metal strands, a woven fabric or a random distribution of the cast metal strands may be sandwiched between two layers of plastic. The cast metal strands may be consolidated into a skeleton by compression, perhaps with cold-welding, or by sintering, and then impregnated with liquid resin or a dispersion. Such products may contain from 3 to 90% by volume of metal, and the plastic may contain pores which may be non- communicating or communicating with each other. Such products may be flexible or rigid. Bearing materials can be made by employing a matrix of 50-80% of cast metal strands and 20-50% of suitable plastic, e.g. polytetrafluorethylene or nylon. Cast metallic ribbons or strands may be disposed on the surface of a plastic sheet to form an electric circuit. Where it is necessary for one strand to cross another without making electrical contact, a thin sheet of plastic material may be disposed between them.