Mechanical Engineering Department

Compression Molding Process

Name: Mahdi Abdulrahim Altoubli

ID Number: 20167706
Instructor: Dr. NAHED JASSIM MOHAMMED SHWAITER
Submission date: 12/29/2021
ABSTRACT
This Paper discusses the compression molding process which is a common polymer
manufacturing process. The equipment used, procedure details, and common applications are all
covered in this paper. The paper also provides a general overview of polymers and their
categories, properties, and structures.
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1

Equipment........................................................................................................................................4

Procedure.........................................................................................................................................4

Usages..............................................................................................................................................5

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

References........................................................................................................................................7
Introduction
This report discusses the compression molding process which is a process used in forming
Thermosetting polymers, elastomers, and some specific applications of Thermoplastic Polymers.
Before we deep dive into our topic, let’s think a little bit about what are polymers? I will define
polymers firstly by examples of polymers then I will provide a scientific definition. Rubber and
all different types of plastic are obviously polymers, but do you believe me if I told you that
human DNA is a polymer? Yes, it is a polymer! DNA, Protein, wood, wool, silk, cotton, natural
rubber, and so on, all are natural polymers (Brauman, 1991) Most of the natural polymers are
processed differently than the synthetic polymers except the natural rubber. For that, when we
talk about polymers processing, we mean the processing of synthetic polymers and natural
rubber.
The American chemist John I. Brauman in one of his articles about polymers in Science’s
Journal define Polymers as “mixtures consist of many molecules, each of which is itself quite
large, and this collection of long-chain molecules has a distribution of molecular weight” (Pg.
835, 1991) Also he emphasized that the properties of polymers do not depend on just the
chemical combination where their properties defined by three factors; the chemical combination,
molecular weight, and the distribution of the molecules of the polymer.
Linguists looked to the origin of the word, where it is originally a Greek word that means many
(poly) parts (meros), it’s a perfect description of the nature of the polymers where they are
composed of many connected units. The first use of polymer’s word in its current meaning in
1866 (Merriam Webster, n.d.) where the synthetic polymers were discovered for the first time by
the German scientist Charles Goodyear wherein 1851 patented a hard rubber called Eboniet
(This type of rubber categorized as a thermosetting polymer.) (Groover, 2010). Industrial
engineers provide the same as the chemists’ definition to the polymers, but they categorized the
synthetics polymers into three categories depending on their response’s nature to raising the
temperature. Material scientists, on the other hand, categorized the polymers depending on their
molecular structure, they categorized them into four categories; linear, branched, crosslinked,
and network. (Callister & Rethwisch, 2010) (I will not discuss these categories where this report
is about an industrial process)

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 Figure 1: (a) linear molecular structure, (b) branched molecular structure, (c)
crosslinked molecular structure, network molecular structure.(Callister & Rethwisch, 2010)

The first category is Thermoplastic polymer (TP) which is a polymer that becomes viscous when
it is heated to a few hundred degrees. The most featural thing about thermoplastics is that they
are recyclable where they can be heated and cooled repeatedly without significantly affecting
their quality and properties. (Groover, 2010) However, if the thermoplastics are heated with so
high temperatures a significant degradation results. Most polymers that have linear molecular
structures and that have flexible chains branched structures are thermoplastics. polyethylene,
polystyrene, poly(ethylene terephthalate), and poly(vinyl chloride) are some of the common
thermoplastics. (Callister & Rethwisch, 2010)
The second category is Thermosetting Polymers (TS) which are harder materials than TP and
have better dimensions stability. (Callister & Rethwisch, 2010) Heating Thermosetting obtains
chemical reactions that made them hard infusible solids. For that, they are unrecyclable, and
reheating them causes degrading and charring. (Groover, 2010) All thermosetting materials have
a network and crosslinked molecular structure. Vulcanized rubbers, epoxies, and phenolics, and
some polyester resins, are examples of thermosetting.
The third category is Elastomers which are a type of polymers, they are simply rubber. They are
so elastic materials that extend (stretch) with low mechanical stress, while they can recover their

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original size and shape without any deformation when the stress is removed. (Groover, 2010)
There are many types of rubbers starting with natural rubber and not ending with Silicon Rubber.
Most types of rubbers are thermoset materials that cannot be melted and recycled. However,
there is a special type of elastomers that can be recycled and reshaped easily which is the
thermoplastic elastomers which can be reshaped and recycled easily. (Callister & Rethwisch,
2010) Different types of rubber have different properties which make them applicable for
specific purposes. Elastomers do concern us for this report where the compression molding
process is widely used with elastomers, I will discuss them in more detail in the section of usages
of compression molding.
There are many manufacturing processes that apply to polymers, and in this report, as I
mentioned earlier, I chose to discuss the compression molding process. Why did I choose it
specifically? There are many reasons for that, firstly that the compression molding process is one
of the earliest processing operations of polymers and still one of the common ones. (Groover,
2010) Also, the name of the process which is “compression” is a good description of my status
these days, where the exams, quizzes, and reports are all compressing me. Even though that their
compression is closer to the compression in the extrusion process but still “compression” word is
more meaningful. After this synonyms joke let’s discover the compression molding process.

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 Compression Molding Process
The discussion of compression welding process will divide into three sections, The first section
will cover the equipment used in the process. The second section is going to provide a detailed
description of the molding procedure. The third section will list the common products that made
by compression molding. Let’s start with first section.

Equipment
1. Charge: it is the raw material of the process, as I mentioned in the introduction that
compression molding is used most efficiently with thermosetting polymers, elastomers,
and some specific types of thermoplastic polymers. The charge can be in any form,
powder, liquid, pellet, or any other form. The quantity of charge that adds to the mold
should be so precise, where if the quantity is less or more than the defined amount that
will cause defects in the final product.
2. Mold: it is made of metal and composed of two parts. One of the parts is fixed and the
other one is movable where it moves vertically automatically. The movable half can be
either the top half or the bottom half, but the top half is the most common.
3. Heater: For mass production, the charge is heated before loading into the mold, the
common types of heaters used for this purpose are:
- Infrared Heater: it is a heater that used electromagnetic radiation for heating.
(Wikipedia, 2021)
- Convection Heater: it is a heater that used convection current and circular air for
heating (Wikipedia, 2021)

Procedure
There are two types of the compression molding process, hot and cold. The hot molding process
is the most common. (Sapuan, 2017) Firstly, the charge is added into the cavity of the mold and
as I mentioned earlier it is more commonly be heated previously while mass production. Also, it
is preferred to add the charge as a fine powder to avoid granular boundaries in the product
(Steven, 2019)
The mold is heated (commonly the die is the heated part of the mold) with a various range of
temperatures (it is about 180 c for thermosetting plastics) and the upper half applies pressure that
different from one process to another (in the range of 150 tons – 2500 tons) (Greene, 2021).
Secondly, the upper half compresses the charge by the punch contained in the upper half to form
the shape of the final product. Finally, the upper half is raised, and the final product is ejected.
The three steps of the process are shown in figure 2. After that, the product is taken into the
deflashing process where flashes are removed from the product.

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Figure 2: Compression molding process in three diagrams. (Groover, 2010)

Compression molding has many advantages, its cost is low, and the material waste is lower
compared with other polymers forming processes. On the other hand, compression molding has
some limitations, like it considered a time-consuming process where it has a lower production
rate (longer cycle time) than other processes like extrusion for instance, although it is used for
mass production in many industrial sectors where it is the most efficient process. (Groover,
2010)

Usages
There are many usages to Compression molding, I will mention here some of the important
usages. Some of the thermosetting plastics products made by hot compression molding including
e electric plugs and sockets, pot handles, and dinnerware plates. Compression molding
applications with thermoplastics include forming glass matt thermoplastic materials for making
some automotive parts like bumpers. (Greene, 2021) With elastomers, it is commonly used to
produce rubber tires. Therefore, compression molding plays an important role in the automotive
parts industry.
Let’s look at just one application of the cold compression molding process, this is a great
innovative application is suggested by a research team at the University of Rome tor Vergata
(2020). This application depends on recycling tires to produce filters for cleaning seas water. The
filters are produced by the cold compression process. The “filters have been produced to show
their ability for selective recovery of oil from a water surface” (Iorio & others, 2020). This
application shows that there are a lot of promising applications of cold compression molding,
especially it is a process that does not produce contaminants.

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Conclusion
The sum-up of this paper is that compression molding is an effective forming process of
polymers that has advantages that are not offered in other types of polymers’ forming processes.
We discussed through the report the equipment used in the process and the stages of the process.
In the final section of the report, I have listed some of the common products made by
compression molding and some promising applications of cold compression molding.

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References
Brauman, J. I. (1991). Polymers. Science, 251(4996), 853–853.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2874870

Convection heater. (2021, December 28). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 29, 2021, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convection_heater

Greene, J. P. (2021). Automotive Plastics and Composites (2021st ed., Vol. 1). William Andrew

Publishing. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128180082000155

Groove, M. P. (2010). FUNDAMENTALS OF MODERN MANUFACTURING

Materials,Processes,and Systems (4th edition, Vol. 1). JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

Infrared heater. (2021, December 27). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 29, 2021, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_heater

Iorio, L., Bellisario, D., Papa, C., Santo, L., & Quadrini, F. (2020). Cold Compression Molding
of Pyrolytic Carbon from Tires for Oil Absorbers. Procedia Manufacturing, 47, 799–803.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351978920313123

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Polymer. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved December

24, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polymer

S.M. Sapuan. (2017). Composite Materials (2017th ed., Vol. 1). Butterworth-Heinemann.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128025079000039

Steven M. Kurtz. (2019). PEEK Biomaterials Handbook ((Second Edition) ed., Vol. 1). William
Andrew Publishing.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128125243000028

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