ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,654,399, issued on June 16, was assigned to Hexcel Composites Ltd. (Duxford, Great Britain).
"Ultrasonic welding of prepreg tape" was invented by Marco Arcidiacono (Duxford, Great Britain), Jorge Barrio (Duxford, Great Britain) and Hector Alvarez (Duxford, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A process for forming a spliced prepreg tape by joining adjacent ends (22, 24) of a first and a second prepreg tape (2, 3, 4), each prepreg tape comprising a respective first and second prepreg layer (12, 18) comprising fibrous material and curable thermosetting resin, each prepreg tape further comprising a respective first and second releas...