IV New Patents

bodies made therefrom which are particularly resistant to slag and metal erosion and to ther- mal shock. This is achieved by combining grains or powders of SiAlON and/or silicon nitride with elemental carbon in the form of graphite, carbon black or charcoal. The particulate materials are mixed with a carbonaceous binder such as resin or pitch, pressed to shape and fired in a reducing atmosphere. Small amounts of antioxidants are also added to protect the car- bon bond phase against slag attack. Additional amounts of a less expensive refractory grain or powder are also optionally added to the mix to dilute the more expensive SiAlON and/or silicon nitride.

4873071

GRAPHITE STRUCTURES AND METHOD FOR PRODUCTION

THEREOF

Yasuhiro Yamada, Takeshi Imamura, Hidemasa Honda, Masaki Fujii, Masanori Minohata, Tosu, Japan assigned to Koa Oil Company Limited Director General Agency of Industrial Science Technology

A graphite structure, which is of light weight and excellent elasticity and has a packing density of

0.5 g/cm3 or lower and a recovery of 50% or higher at a compressibility of 10 to 90x, is ob- tained by treating a carbonaceous material with nitric acid or a mixture of nitric and sulfuric ac- ids and, then, heat-treating the obtained product at a temperature of 2,400 degrees C. or higher to graphitize the same.

4874563

PROCESS FOR PREPARING TOWS FROM COMPOSITE FIBER

BLENDS

Paul McMahon, Tai-Shung Chung, Lincoln Ying assigned to BASF Structural Materials Inc

A continuous, substantially uniform tow useful in forming composite molded articles is prepared by forming a continuous tow of continuous car- bon fibers, forming a continuous tow of thermo- plastic polymer fibers to a selected width, uniformly and continuously spreading the car- bon fiber two to a width that is essentially the same as the selected width for the thermoplastic polymer fiber tow, intermixing the tows in- timately, uniformly and continuously, in a rela- tively tension-free state, and continuosuly withdrawing the intermixed tow.

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