Hot-Press Cycle Planner: Temperature and Pressure Segments

Hot-press cycle planner

Choose a PressPro™ hot press and the loaded area, then write the cycle as segments: a target temperature, the rate of the ramp to it, a hold, and the pressure on the sample during the segment. The planner draws both programs to scale and checks the cycle against the press. The example numbers only show the format; they are not a recommendation.

Press

Model

Temperature version

Loaded area

Width of the sample or frame moldmm

Lengthmm

Starting temperature°C

Room temperature°C

temperature, °C (left)pressure on the sample, MPa (right)To scale in time.

Number of segments

#Target, °CT, °CRate, °C/minRateHold at target, minHold, minPressure on sample, MPaP, MPa

T target temperature; Rate of the ramp to it (empty for a hold at the same temperature); Hold time at the target; P pressure on the sample during the segment (0 = no load).

Each segment ramps from the previous target to its own at the rate you enter, then holds; the pressure you enter applies through the whole segment, and the load comes off at the end of the last segment that carries a load; a segment with no ramp and no hold is an instantaneous step, marked on the plot. The temperature check compares the highest temperature with the upper limit of the version, and each set-point with the room temperature you enter (the heating range starts at room temperature); it is not a check of the whole range. Force = pressure × loaded area ÷ 9800. Ratings, lower force limits, platen sizes, die sizes, temperature classes and cooling requirements as printed in the PressPro™ specifications. The specifications print a 30-segment temperature program on every heated model and, on the automatic dual-platen and vacuum presses, 5 pressure segments, upgradeable to 30; here each heating ramp and each hold count as one segment; a cooling ramp is not counted, since the program prints natural cooling. How the two programs of the automatic presses are linked on the controller, whether the program can hold a set cooling rate, the heating and cooling rates the presses reach, the pressure a heated die can take at temperature, temperature uniformity and the height of the stack are not covered here. The times are those of your program; the sample temperature lags the platens. The planning draft is a plan, not a record of a run, and carries every failed check. The tool does not judge whether a cycle suits a material.