A process for forming thermoplastic composites that uses wet use chopped
strand glass is provided. Wet reinforcement fibers such as wet chopped
strand glass fibers are opened by passing the fibers consecutively
through a first opener, a condenser, and, optionally, a second opener.
The opened reinforcement fibers are mixed with a resin and transferred to
a first sheet former. The resin is preferably polypropylene fibers. An
optional second sheet former may be used to form a final composite having
high structural integrity. The resulting sheet may be optionally passed
through a needle felting machine for mechanical strengthening. The sheet
is then passed through a thermal bonder to thermally bond the
reinforcement glass fibers and resin. The composite product that exits
the thermal bonder can be subsequently used as a reinforcement in a
molding process to produce composite articles.