Surface Generation
A breakthrough in advanced manufacturing has seen the two-minute barrier for compression moulding cycles smashed.
Surface Generation, a provider of advanced carbon fibre processing technologies based in Rutland, UK, has unveiled its new compression moulding technology for high-volume automotive and consumer electronics manufacturers.
Surface Generation's Multiplexing system has been developed to form fibre-reinforced plastic components in high-volume manufacturing environments with greater speed and precision. It uses a unique transfer process with a pressure containment cassette that allows mould faces and laminates to be held at predefined loads, even outside the press.
Mould faces are loaded into cassettes and passed through a series of material loading, preheating, moulding, cooling and demoulding stations, which precisely control the temperature and pressure applied. The use of multiple cassettes, preheating and cooling stations minimises time within the press and makes it possible to achieve Takt times of as low as one minute.
Surface Generation’s patented PtFS technology is central to the system, allowing temperatures to be dynamically controlled to the exact local requirements of each part. By adapting heating and cooling levels in real-time, quality is assured and throughput maximised. Parts taking more than six minutes using traditional compression moulding tools can be produced in two minutes using the new system.
Surface Generation Chief Executive Ben Halford explained: "This major PtFS advancement transforms high-volume compression moulding. Traditional transfer processes use laminate preheating, with cold tools to speed production. With PtFS and Multiplexing the mould heats, stabilises and cools parts, allowing the press to open early and freeing this expensive bottleneck to run again."
"This approach allows multiple parts made from different materials to simultaneously flow down the same production line. PtFS sits at the heart of the production line, increasing precision, boosting throughput and reducing energy consumption for materials ranging from ABS to PEEK."
Surface Generation is planning a series of open days in the autumn for customers to see Multiplexing being used for thermoplastic compression moulding, along with PtFS in more conventional injection moulding and thermoset Out-of-Autoclave applications.