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New Products NEW Products Compression shuttle press LMG (De Pere, Wis.) has introduced its largest-ever shuttle press. The 900ton system has a mold die capacity of 126 by 116 inches (3,200 by 2,946 mm). The total length of the press and shuttle system is 39 ft/11.9m. The platen movement is facilitated by eight main rams and two jack cylinders. Accurate platen parallelism is achieved with 45° adjustable gib guides on four of its rectangular tie rods. The press was built to mold heavy parts as large as 56 ft²/5.2m². Its shuttle system is designed to move the lower from the mold. The system will soon be used to mold roof shells, with a 50 percent fber volume, for the Roding Roadster Targa (Roding Automotive GmbH, Roding, Germany). The polyurethane matrix resin will be prepared by two RIM-Star Nano 4/4 metering machines, which are equipped for hightemperature process control with material temperatures up to 80°C/176°F. The wear-optimized machine design reportedly will ensure permanent process stability with polyamide (PA), polyurethane (PUR) and epoxy resins. The machine's centerpiece is a new RTM mold carrier with a compact design and a clamping force of 3,800 kN. The mold fxing area (1,300 by 1,300 mm, or 51.2 by 51.2 inches) is said to be ideal for auto components as large as 1m²/10.8 ft². www.kraussmaffei.com Pourable, addition-curing silicone Hybrid structural adhesives ADERIS's (Le Thillay, France) frst line of hybrid structural adhesives, called INES (INterlaced Elastomer NetworkS), are said to offer high structural and sound-damping performance (suitable for automotive parts). The line reportedly requires no primer on joint members and combines the performance of three adhesive bonding technologies: the resistance and mechanical strength of epoxies; the elasticity provided by polyurethanes (PUR); and the fast assembly rate enabled by methyl methacrylates (MMA). ADERIS says this is the frst time a structural adhesive combines elongation, low modulus and high mechanical performance with high impact resistance and peel and shear strengths — 70 percent pure elasticity over an elongation range in combination with high strength (250 kg/cm2 for shear on steel and up to 100 kg/3.5 cm for peel) — and it does so in a range of temperatures from -80°C to 140°C (-112°F to 284°F). The resulting bond remains fexible, yet bonded parts may be handled soon after they are joined. www.aderis-specialties.com HP-RTM for automotive molding KraussMaffei's (Munich, Germany) new RIM-Star high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) production cell is designed for series production of carbon fber-reinforced composite components that are paintable direct Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) has developed ELASTOSIL VARIO, a modular system for pourable silicone rubber compounds with two components that enter into an addition reaction at room temperature in the presence of a platinum catalyst. The system permits adjustment of the compound's reactivity and the hardness of the cured elastomer, enabling compounders and silicone processors to tailor-make products. Suitable for encapsulating and coating, for making technical molded parts and for moldmaking, the system consists of four modules: two base components and two catalyst components. The former can be blended together in any ratio, and so can the latter. From these modules, the processor mixes the two components of the RTV-2 silicone rubber compound in the quantities needed for curing. The mixing ratios for the base and catalyst components can be varied to match the silicone to the application. The hardness of the cured rubber is determined by the ratio of the two base components in the mixture; Shore A durometers range from 15 to 40. www.wacker.com Fatigue analysis for wovens Safe Technology Ltd. (Sheffeld, U.K.) says the latest release of Safe's fe-safe/Composites (the add-on module to Safe's fe-safe suite of fatigue analysis software for fnite element models) features a new tool for fatigue analysis of woven fbers. Developed by Safe Technology and Firehole Composites (Laramie, Wyo., now part of Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, Calif.), the module also extends current capabilities to new microstructures and loading defnitions, and it supports fatigue life predictions of plain-weave microstructures, using the same physics-based solution as that already applied to unidirectional composites. Fatigue life predictions now can be completed for multiaxial load states for which the material is not characterized. Further, the applicable loading defnitions have been expanded to allow for multiple repeats and block loadings — useful for defning complex duty cycles (a function used widely by wind turbine blade manufacturers). Finally, the effects of material healing at low stress levels have been included to accommodate infnite life scenarios that are often encountered in analyses with low loads applied for long histories. www.safetechnology.com CT oCTober 2013 mold half to the outboard station for material loading and to shuttle the just-molded part to the opposite side for unloading. The press has a mold load feature on the shuttle table that incorporates pins that come up through the table to support the mold above the table as it is loaded via forklift truck. After the forklift truck moves away, the pins lower the mold into proper position. The press is controlled with an Allen Bradley PLC. www.lmgpresses.com 43