Design and Realization of a Compression Molding Press, used to Produce Plate Composite Parts

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a need to use material resources that incorporate low manufacturing, processing and exploitation costs. Thus, the existence and accessibility on the market of materials with increasing mechanical performance and with the lowest densities possible, under conditions of acceptable production and operating costs, is taken into account. Composite materials arouse a growing interest from many industrial sectors, and their use tends to generalize. For design, the emergence of these new materials represents a major change, which has a profound impact in the design and realization of industrial products. In the same time, compression molding is a high–volume, high– pressure method suitable for molding fiber or fabric reinforcements – unidirectional tapes, woven fabrics, randomly oriented fiber mat or chopped strand – into a polymer matrix material. We’ll show how anyone can use this process to create plate composite prototypes using an original designed compression molding press, realized within the Faculty’s Composite & Advanced Materials Laboratory, used to produce plate composite parts with post–consumer waste textile inserts.