Compression molding has been around a long time. But the method of using heat and pressure to form a part is being adapted with the times and managing to still find growth opportunities.Get more news about compression moulding machine,you can vist our website!

"We are building more compression molding machines for customers that want the machine itself to be more precise, more repeatable, [have] less downtime, and then have everything be recordable," said Josh Dixon, director of sales and marketing for Beckwood Corp., Fenton, Mo.At French Oil Mill Machinery Co., Piqua, Ohio, demand for compression molding machines is trending up because of advances in materials and processes, said Dave Sledz, hydraulic division VP. In the past, compression molding was mostly limited to the aerospace industry, because of the cost. But now materials advances have allowed it to be increasingly employed by the automotive, recreational and medical markets, among others. And the aerospace market is expanding.

To meet increasing demands for temperature uniformity of the platen surface, Beckwood employs a multizone heat control technology. It also now builds every compression molding machine with a data recorder to register time, as well as to measure the temperature of each heating zone, the mold and sometimes even the part. "And those will oftentimes be graphed and exported to customer networks for traceability," Dixon said.

That capability also is a key factor for French Oil. "Certain industries, [such as] aerospace, need 100 percent traceability. Our control systems allow that. For each cycle, for each part, we know times, temperatures, deviations, things like that," said Sledz.
In compression molding, the amount of time the machine is applying pressure to the part is known as the dwell cycle. To increase energy efficiency, Beckwood offers a pneumatic dwell system that allows the shutdown of the main hydraulic pump and motor through the cycle. "It's a huge energy consumption advantage as well as just noise decrease," Dixon said.

Compression molding is suited for a wide range of applications, he said. About 10-15 percent of the company's business is with the plastics industry, from thermoplastics for the aerospace industry to the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser consumer cleaning product.

Compression molding applications have evolved with technology changes over the years, and many migrated overseas as they became relatively low tech. The use of composites represents a growth opportunity, said Dave Singer, sales and marketing manager for Wabash MPI and Carver Inc., both in Wabash, Ind. Aerospace has been a strong market for composites for some time. But that is broadening. He said demand for the use of compression molding is growing among more mainstream industries, with applications in the automotive and energy segments. "As the materials get developed at higher temperatures and higher [pounds per square inch], some of them are more applicable to a compression molding application than other means of processing."Both Wabash and Carver make presses for a variety of applications at the Wabash facility. Wabash focuses mainly on manufacturing applications, while Carver's equipment is designed primarily for laboratory uses.

French Oil is seeing a good number of its customers perform resin transfer molding with compression machinery. The use of compression machinery with material that is pre-impregnated with a resin is also growing. The developments take advantage of French Oil's thermal management experience and its Uni-Temp platens and edge controls. "So we're applying some existing technologies that we've known for years and that we're currently developing, and then applying these to these different processes, also," Sledz said. For this approach, French Oil makes the Techni-Mold hydraulic composite molding press series, which is appropriate for use with rubber, silicone and composite materials.