JPH0348023B

PURPOSE:To obtain a highly accurate and reliable expansion joint by a method wherein a winding form for the corrugated portion of an expansion joint is made of low-melting metal and, after fiber reinforced composite material is wound round the winding form and then cured, the material is heated up to a temperature exceeding the melting point of the low-melting metal so as to melt the winding form in order to make the removal of the corrugated portion from a mold. CONSTITUTION:A molding tool has low-melting point metal part 2 for molding the corrugated part and a cylindrical part winding part 3. Resinimpregnated fiber material 1 is wound onto the molding tool. The preferable low-melting metal is metal, the melting point of which is about 250 deg.C or lower and which melts at a temperature exceeding the curing temperature of the object molded item and at the same time the melting temperature of which brings no thermal deterioration of the molded item when the molded item is heated up to said melting temperature. Because the cylindrical part winding part 3 is a cylindrical integral form, the thermal expansion coefficient of the winding form 3 must be larger than that of the cylindrical part of the object expansion joint so as to release from a mold when the molded item cures and ccols down. Thus, dislocation, breakage and gap are hard to develop at the boundary between the cylindrical part and the expansion joint part and an expansion joint with favorable straightness can be manufactured at low cost.