Process for impregnation of glass fiber reinforcement with thermoplastic resins and for producing articles from the impregnated glass fiber

A process for impregnating a glass fiber mat (18) with a resin (16), and for producing composite structures having impregnated glass fibers, is provided which substantially reduces the number of voids in the resulting structure, provides fast and efficient heating of the materials, and requires low capital cost equipment to perform the process. The process includes heating a glass fiber mat (18) and an RF-sensitive resin (16) in a radio frequency electromagnetic field to quickly heat the mat and resin, the resin flowing into voids in the glass fiber mat, thereby impregnating the mat; forming the resulting composite structure into a desired end shape; and cooling the structure. Reduction in the number of voids is advantageously accomplished by impregnating the resin into the mat under vacuum, which removes air and decomposition products which result from the RF heating of the resin. Impregnation, molding of the shape, and cooling of the structure may all be performed in a mold if desired, and elongated profiled parts may be continuously produced from elongated sheet stock by passing the heated structure through roll forming dies.