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Abstract

The present invention has an object to provide a fiber-spreading method which can form a thin spread fiber sheet having a large and uniform spread width by uniformly distributing fibers of a fiber bundle having an increased number of fibers. Since a set of regions S_i each including a pair of a fiber-spreading region A_i and an expansion region B_i are arranged in a movable region M set so that the fibers of the fiber bundle can move in the width direction, the fiber-spreading region A_i moving the fibers in the width direction while bending the fibers by letting a fluid pass through the fiber bundle, thereby spreading the fiber bundle to a spread width W_i (i=1, . . . , n), and the expansion region B_i which is set on the upstream side in the feeding direction corresponding to the fiber-spreading region A_i and in which the width of the fiber bundle expands toward the end with movement of the fibers in the width direction in the fiber-spreading region A_i, by performing pre-spreading in which a movement phenomenon in the width direction caused by distribution of the fibers of the fiber bundle occurring in the fiber-spreading region A_i is made to act on the expansion region B_i on the upstream side, the fibers can be uniformly distributed in the fiber-spreading region A_i and the spread width can be expanded to a predetermined width so as to make the thickness uniform.

First Claim