Assignment

Fontijne Presses B.V. from Delft supplies presses for research into the quality of polymer, rubber and composite. For the optimization of one of its lines, Fontijne Presses went in search of digital readout units, accurate thermocouples and reliable pressure measurement technology.

Polymer, rubber and composite are now widely used in household, medical and industrial consumer products. Fontijne Presses' presses are also used in the laminating and wood industries, universities and research centers, among others.

Manufacturing process

To research the quality of rubber, research centres take a sample from the production batch and press it into a mould. Subsequently, the sample must first be vulcanised (for example according to the ASTM D 3182 standard), after which it is ready to be used for stretch tests, or for tests on density, Mooney viscosity, ash content, bromine and chlorine content. The plate presses of Fontijne Presses can be used for making PE, PP, PS and ABS polymer samples. After all, in order to accurately determine the physical properties of polymers, samples are required that are compressed under controlled conditions in accordance with international standards. Afterwards, properties such as tensile strength, bending and impact can be tested with these samples. In addition, pressed polymer samples are also used for colour tests, weathering and XRF analysis. The presses of Fontijne Presses are also used for research into composite materials. Composite is a material that is made up of several components. This often refers to fibre-reinforced plastics such as glass fibre, aramid, carbon fibre and nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes have many interesting properties that make them suitable for a wide range of applications, including in nanotechnology, electronics and optics. Glass fibre reinforced constructions are widely used in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries. Think of the hulls of fast yachts and aircraft. The Glare, a composite produced by Fokker
produced by Fokker, a composite consisting of glass fibre and aluminium, is used in the Airbus A380.
Carbon fibre-reinforced constructions have a high stiffness and are used in Formula 1, for example. Racing bicycles are also often equipped with this construction.

Solution approach

Aramid-reinforced constructions have a high impact resistance and toughness and are used in bullet-proof vests and doors. In addition to the existing series of fully automatic presses, in all kinds of configurations and versions, up to fully custom-made, Fontijne Presses has developed the LabManual 50.
As the name suggests, the LabManual 50 is a manually operated hydraulic laboratory press. Thanks to its compact size and limited weight, the LabManual 50 can be easily installed on any laboratory table to prepare samples for quality control and R&D purposes.

Project Result

Digital control and display equipment from JUMO

This smaller press is especially designed for pressing thin layers for FTIR analyses or for the preparation of PB1 reactor samples. The LabManual 50 offers a simple and fast operation and is especially targeted at applications requiring multiple presses to obtain a homogeneous material or to dispose of the sample material. The LabManual 50 can handle press requirements up to 50 kN and 200 °C, but also allows the use of much lower closing forces.
Although the LabManual 50 is manually operated, it offers several digital controls and readouts, such as a digital temperature controller and a PID control system. The device also has an integrated LCD display, which shows the closing force set by the hand pump.
In this and the larger models of the LabManual series, Fontijne Presses has used digital control and readout units from JUMO. The CE-certified LabManual 50 is designed with safety in mind, while the ergonomic design and simple operation make life easier for laboratory technicians.