Molded Parts Use up Less Machine Time Over A Single Production Run, Lowering Unit Pricing for Customers and Freeing Up Machine Time to runher Jobs.
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Using a thermoset compression molding process offers distinct advantages and disadvantages from a thermoset injection molding process. In thermoset injection, material is pushed from a hopper (phenolic material) or hydraulic stuffer (bulk molding compound/BMC material) into a screw and barrel to preheat prior to being injected into a hot mold. When material is pushed through the screw and barrel, the glass fiber fillers that make up some thermoset materials are chopped up and dispersed even further. In some applications this would be great as glass is evenly dispersed throughout the part, providing uniformity of the material properties. In other applications, this may actually be a hinderance. When the glass fiber filler is chopped up in the screw and barrel in an injection process, the material may lose some of its strength characteristics. This may be fine for most applications, but in an application where the strength of a material is the most critical property requirement, using a compression molding process could be a better solution than injection molding. With compression process, the glass fiber filler is not further chopped , and may not be evenly dispersed, allowing the opportunity to make some areas of the part stronger than others by strategically placing the “charge” or amount of material to be molded in the compression mold at specific areas.
Alternative to the benefits of a thermoset injection molding process, a thermoset compression process is not as suitable as thermoset injection for high-volume programs due to a slower molding cycle time, creating lower throughput and yield of production per day than an injection process. Compression molding also requires an operator or robot to hand-load material and take out parts from the mold, whereas thermoset injection machines can more commonly mold automatic, with no operator required to stay at the molding station to “demold”, or remove parts form the mold. Material can be fed into a hopper or stuffer periodically with an injection process, whereas compression molding requires an operator or robot to Thermosetting Compression Moulding hand load material into each and every shot, raising labor costs and unit pricing to customers.