A fiber structure manufacturing apparatus includes: a defibration unit that pulverizes and defibrates a fiber raw material that contains fibers; a transportation unit that transports a defibrated material after defibration by the defibration unit; a melting-material mixing unit that mixes a melting material into the defibrated material transported by the transportation unit; a fibrous web forming unit that forms a fibrous web by causing a mixture of the defibrated material and the melting material to accumulate; a sheet supplying unit that supplies a shape retainer sheet to the fibrous web; and a heating-and-pressing mechanism that forms a fiber structure by heating and pressing the fibrous web after the shape retainer sheet is supplied; wherein the sheet supplying unit supplies the shape retainer sheet in such a state that nap is raised on a surface, of the shape retainer sheet, that is to be in contact with the fibrous web.

An example composite building material includes one or more layers of polymeric fibers, binding agent, and optional fillers, and at least one surface layer of resin-impregnated paper disposed above and/or below the one or more layers. The one or more layers can include a core layer with longer polymeric fibers and top and bottom layers with shorter polymeric fibers. A method of manufacturing the composite building material includes forming the one or more layers, applying the at least one surface layer above and/or below the one or more layers, and heating and pressing the combined layers.

A fiber structure manufacturing apparatus including: an accumulation portion that accumulates a material containing a resin and a fiber in air to generate a fiber web; a transport portion that transports the generated fiber web in a transport direction; and a heating and pressurizing portion that pressurizes the transported fiber web with a heated lower flat plate and an upper flat plate to melt the resin, in which a liquid absorbent having a first region where pressurization by the heating and pressurizing portion is performed the predetermined number of times and a second region where the pressurization is performed more than a predetermined number of times is formed by alternately repeating transport at a predetermined pitch shorter than a length of the flat plate in the transport direction by the transport portion and the pressurization.

A binder that is used for forming fiber-based items and that binds fibers contains a polyester and an aggregation inhibitor. The polyester contains a structural unit derived from polyethylene terephthalate, a structural unit derived from at least one polyvalent carboxylic acid, and a structural unit derived from at least one polyhydric alcohol including trimethylolpropane. The binder exhibits a viscosity coefficient higher than 3500 P at 150° C. in dynamic viscoelasticity measurement.

A binder that is used for forming fiber-based items and that binds fibers contains a polyester and an aggregation inhibitor. The polyester contains a structural unit derived from polyethylene terephthalate, a structural unit derived from at least one polyvalent carboxylic acid, and a structural unit derived from at least one polyhydric alcohol including trimethylolpropane. The binder exhibits a viscosity coefficient higher than 3500 P at 150° C. in dynamic viscoelasticity measurement.

An object of the present invention is to develop and provide a fiber-reinforced composite material having a bagworm silk thread(s) as a reinforcing fiber and being isotropic in terms of elastic modulus and strength. A fiber-reinforced composite material having nonwoven fabric(s) including bagworm silk thread as a reinforcing fiber is also provided.

A fiber structure manufacturing apparatus includes: a defibration unit that pulverizes and defibrates a fiber raw material that contains fibers; a transportation unit that transports a defibrated material after defibration by the defibration unit; a melting-material mixing unit that mixes a melting material into the defibrated material transported by the transportation unit; a fibrous web forming unit that forms a fibrous web by causing a mixture of the defibrated material and the melting material to accumulate; a sheet supplying unit that supplies a shape retainer sheet to the fibrous web; and a heating-and-pressing mechanism that forms a fiber structure by heating and pressing the fibrous web after the shape retainer sheet is supplied; wherein the sheet supplying unit supplies the shape retainer sheet in such a state that nap is raised on a surface, of the shape retainer sheet, that is to be in contact with the fibrous web.

Nonwoven fiber mats include primarily B-glass fibers, and have a thickness of about 10 to about 700 microns and a basis weight of about 1 to 70 g/m.sup.2. The mats are generally thermally stable at temperatures of up to 650° C., and are suitable for use as battery separators.

A method of manufacturing a composite product, comprising: applying a binder composition, notably in the form of an aqueous solution, to non or loosely assembled matter to provide resinated matter, wherein the binder composition consists of a binder composition prepared by combining reactants comprising at least 50% by dry weight reducing sugar reactant(s) and at least 5% by dry weight nitrogen-containing reactant(s); and arranging the resinated matter to provide loosely arranged resinated matter; and subjecting the loosely arranged resinated matter to heat and/or pressure to cure the binder composition and to form the composite product; wherein the nitrogen-containing reactant(s) comprise TPTA triprimary triamine(s), notably wherein the nitrogen-containing reactant(s) comprise at least 5% by dry weight of TPTA triprimary triamine(s).

The present invention relates to a thermosetting binder composition containing water and a water-soluble oligomeric ester of at least one saccharide chosen from reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and hydrogenated sugars, the hydrogenated sugars being chosen from the group consisting of erythritol, arabitol, xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, iditol, maltitol, isomaltitol, lactitol, cellobitol, palatinitol, maltotritol and hydrogenation products of hydrolyzates of starch or of lignocellulose materials, and of at least one polycarboxylic acid, the binder composition having a dry matter content of between 50% and 80% by weight, the water-soluble oligomeric ester representing at least 80% by weight, preferably at least 90% by weight, of the cry matter content of the thermosetting binder composition, and the thermosetting binder composition containing less than 10% by weight, preferably less than 5% by weight, with respect to its dry matter content, of free sorbitol.

It also relates to the use of such a binder composition for the manufacture of a product based on mineral or organic fibers which are bonded by an insoluble organic binder.