NEW HYDRAULIC PRESS FOR MANUFACTURING COMPOSITES PARTS

Fagor-Onapres has been awarded with a new order for supplying a new hydraulic press aimed to manufacture parts made of composites and reinforced plastics.  This order comes from one of the leading companies in the sector, Fiberpachs. The new machine will provide a capacity of 10,000 KN and the bolster’s dimension will be of 2,800 x 1,800 mm. The maximum Shut Height will be 2,550 mm. Although the maximum speed will be 450 mm/s to perform all the not directly productive motions quickly, the speed can also be slowed down to 1 mm/s to deal with complex parts. Obviously, the slide can also be stopped in the DBC to allow the proper curing of the plastics. Being a hydraulic press designed for manufacturing composites, it includes an advanced parallelism control specially designed for this type of applications. It also includes functions to work with IMC materials (In Mold Coating) and the whole installation is controlled by a powerful computerized system.

Technically speaking, and although there are maby different variations, an IMC compound includes usually a conglomerate of unsaturated oligomers and monomers that give surface hardness and adhesion to SMC; peroxides to obtain the needed cure rates; benzoquinone to provide longer life; carbon to increase conductivity for subsequent electrostatic paintings as well as plyvinylacetate por painting adhesion.