Composites : Stronger When Together
The advantages offered by composite materials, molded through compression
presses, such as low weight, resilience, strength, thermal properties, cost
reduction and safety far exceed that of individual materials like plastics,
aluminum and steel.
As the automotive vehicle design strives towards weight reduction and automotive engineers search for ways to make it lighter, at lower cost component, the compression moulding of composites takes the center stage in composites-for-metal substitution.
Compression moulding presses
More strength and flexural modulus due to longer fibers is achieved with the advances in composites and more reinforcement-intensive thermoset compounds. This attribute is pushing composites more into structural and semi-structural application field, traditionally reserved for metals, enabling significant reductions in part wall thickness. The ability of the compression moulded composites to play any number of roles and play them well is a major reason they continue to rise above the challenges of other materials such as plastics, steel and aluminum.
The advantage of weight and cost reduction has prompted the development of compression moulding presses over other composites processing systems. Hence, ISGEC’s compression moulding presses with the capability to reproduce fiber-reinforced composite parts in significant volumes, with the precision, repeatability and pace to which the automotive industry has become accustomed in the stamping of metal parts, garner interest as an economical quick-change solution.
ISGEC presses
In thermoset applications, results are achieved with greater percentages of fiber loading and the use of high-performance fibers which add strength and rigidity to the composite components, but relatively poor in-mould flow characteristics of these materials challenge the limits of compression moulding press design, particularly in terms of press speed. ISGEC presses put a premium on press speeds and meet the challenge of keeping cycle times down as material viscosities go up.
To successfully mould composite components, the company has accelerated both the advance speeds (closing the mould) and full-tonnage speeds (applying the moulding pressures) in the hydraulic systems. ISGEC
presses feature computer control for both velocity profiling, allowing for non-linear velocity at full tonnage, and pressure profiling to keep from overpowering the charge, thereby giving greater flexibility in component production.
Speeds and pressures in ISGEC presses are controlled with closed-loop motion control and pressure-controlled servo hydraulic systems, integrated with programmable logic controllers and touch-screen operator interfaces. Advances in microprocessor technology translate to greater control as these advances have applied to ISGEC’s presses.
Precision measurement
A primary measurement of precision in compression moulding presses is deflection, which is normally measured across the diagonal of the platen. ISGEC press configuration is with optimized deflection properties in order to achieve uniform wall thicknesses. Furthermore, a parallelism control system holds the platen accurately to within required tolerances as per process requirement.
ISGEC’s press expertise lies in low consumption/high performance and the know-how in complete automated production lines to suit varied customer needs.
HIGHLIGHT :The advantage of weight and cost reduction has prompted the development of compression moulding presses over other composites processing systems.
Vivek Nigam
Executive Vice President
Head of Business Unit-Machine Building
Isgec Heavy Engineering Ltd
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