Shaped material and manufacturing method

1. A process for production of a shaped material, comprising the following steps:

i) providing a fabric exclusively made of carbon fibres or precursors of the fibres, manufactured in a spiral shape around a development axis;

ii) axially overlapping coils of said fabric to form a plurality of layers of material;

iii) needling the coils of step ii), so as to transpose the carbon fibres or precursors of the fibres through thickness of the layers of material;

iv) impregnating at least part of the layers of material of step ii) or step iii) by an impregnating agent;

v) densifying the product of step iii) or iv) up to a desired density range to obtain the shaped material consisting of the plurality of layers of material; wherein the densifying comprises at least a step of hot stamping; and wherein the density range is 1.35 g/cm 3 to 1.45 g/cm 3 ;

vi) infiltrating with silicon the product of step v) so that part of the carbon of the carbon fibres and/or a carbonaceous matrix of said material reacts with part of the infiltrated silicon and forms silicon carbide zones, wherein the silicon carbide zones bridge between adjacent layers of material and consolidate the layers of material and bind the layers of material together.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein step i) comprises at least a step of weaving said carbon fibres into a warp-and-weft fabric that develops with substantial continuity through the plurality of coils, wherein the warp of the fabric develops around said axis through the coils, while the weft is oriented in substantially radially with respect to said axis.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the fabric is manufactured as a ribbon extending in curvilinear fashion around the development axis.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein step i) comprises a step of providing carbon fibres in a polymeric state as said precursors of the carbon fibres and wherein, following step ii), said process comprises a step of carbonising the carbon fibres of said layers of material at a temperature of 1500-1900° C.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein step iv) is conducted at least partially simultaneously with step ii) and comprises a sub-step of distributing the impregnating agent between the coils so as to place the impregnating agent between the layers of material.

6. The process according to claim 1 , comprising at least a step of hardening the impregnating agent in correspondence to, or following, step v).

7. The process according to claim 6 , comprising one or more steps selected from among:

vii) pyrolysing the product of step v), at a temperature of 800-1000° C.;

viii) mechanically working the product of step v), or step vi);

ix) treating with an anti-oxidant at least one of the products of steps vi) to viii).

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein step iv) is conducted at least partially simultaneously with step v) and includes sub-steps of:

a) heating under vacuum the product of step ii) or iii);

b) injecting the impregnating agent in fluid form in the product of sub-step a);

c) hardening the impregnating agent in the product of sub-step b).

9. The process according to claim 8 , comprising one or more steps selected from among:

vii) pyrolysing the product of step v) or of sub-step c), at a temperature of 800-1000° C.;

viii) mechanically working the product of step v), step vi) or sub-step c);

ix) treating with an anti-oxidant at least one of the products of steps vi) to viii).

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the impregnating agent is a granulometric solid, a film or a tape, spiral-shaped, or in liquid form.

11. The process according to claim 1 , comprising, before step v), a step of compacting the layers of material of step ii), step iii) or step iv) by a vacuum bag in the presence of a weak heating, at a temperature in the range 70-100° C.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the shaped material comprises a disk for a disk brake.

13. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the impregnating agent comprises a phenolic resin.

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the shaped material has a residual porosity less than 5%.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the shaped material has a residual porosity less than 3%.

16. A process for production of a shaped material, comprising the following steps:

i) providing a fabric exclusively made of precursor fibres, manufactured in a spiral shape around a development axis;

ii) axially overlapping coils of said fabric to form a plurality of layers of material;

iii) needling the coils of step ii), so as to transpose the precursor fibres through thickness of the layers of material;

iv) impregnating at least part of the layers of material of step ii) or step iii) by an impregnating agent;

v) densifying the product of step iv) up to a density range of 1.35 g/cm 3 to 1.45 g/cm 3 to obtain the shaped material consisting of the plurality of needled and/or impregnated layers of material, the densifying comprising at least a step of hot stamping;

vi) infiltrating with silicon the product of step v) so that part of the carbon of the precursor fibres and/or a carbonaceous matrix of said material reacts with part of the infiltrated silicon and forms silicon carbide zones, wherein the silicon carbide zones bridge between adjacent layers of material and consolidate the layers of material and bind the layers of material together, and wherein the carbonaceous matrix is composed of at least 50% carbon and at least a portion of the precursor fibres is at least partially englobed.

17. The process according to claim 16 , wherein the precursor fibres comprise polyacrylonitrile fibres.

18. The process according to claim 16 , wherein the shaped material has a residual porosity less than 5%.

19. The process according to claim 16 , wherein the shaped material has a residual porosity less than 3%.