| abstract |
Dried bundles of chopped glass fibers that may be used in mat forming 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, a Cratec® oven, or a rotating tray 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. |