HOB: Manufacture with Atmospheric Pressure

MSM Maschinenbau has been manufacturing vacuum presses, vacuum bags, and special machines in the vacuum press segment since the 1990s. The company now aims to increasingly offer its products worldwide, with a focus on customer orientation. Over 30 vacuum press models in various sizes form the basis for this endeavor.

MSM Maschinenbau’s product portfolio ranges from vacuum bags and typical vacuum presses for carpenters to industrial systems for composite manufacturing. The application of vacuum press technology from Kitzingen offers carpenters a variety of opportunities to integrate new manufacturing methods into their production processes. More and more users are also recognizing the potential of the vacuum press as a veneer press.

Unleashing creativity, veneering and coating panels, wrapping, and form-gluing are among the most common and well-known applications for carpenters. But do they also have the option to coat their substrate materials with reclaimed or split wood, leather, metal, glass, or stone? With a vacuum press or a vacuum bag, there are few limits to their creativity in manufacturing. Practice shows that vacuum presses can also be reliably used for producing laminated panels, gluing solid woods, edge banding, and gluing in glazing beads.

But how does working with a vacuum press or a vacuum bag function?
The user simply lets atmospheric pressure do the work. The natural rubber or silicone membrane serves as a seal between the ambient pressure and the pressure
on the workpiece. The more vacuum generated by the vacuum pump, the higher the pressure on the workpiece. When gluing with white glues, the vacuum offers another
advantage: The boiling temperature of the water, which must escape from the glue during drying, decreases with increasing vacuum. By using an oil-lubricated vacuum pump, users can achieve almost the same pressing time for veneering as with a heated veneer press. The advantage is that only a fraction of the electricity is consumed (approximately 120 to 150 watts/hour) compared to a heated veneer press.

When forming plastics or solid surface materials, the materials are heated either in a separate preheating station or in a combined vacuum press with a preheating station. It is important to heat the respective material evenly to the temperature required by the manufacturer. While the use of heating plates offers certain advantages in the industrial sector, hot air technology is the first choice for many carpenters. MSM Maschinenbau’s preheating stations utilize technology with laterally mounted convection heating elements and cross-flow ventilation. This ensures that the entire workpiece is in a closed, uniformly hot air stream, allowing it to be heated homogeneously and stress-free. This technique is also suitable for the slow tempering of acrylic glass. The programmable, digital temperature control and the digital timer for heating cycles with a signal light ensure high user-friendliness. The preheating station is closed by vacuum suction cups, which are automatically activated upon closing. The preheating station can be reopened at the push of a button. After heating, the thermoplastic materials can be formed in the vacuum press with a temperature-resistant, stretchable silicone membrane. A durable HPL solid core worktop with air channels and up to 32 suction points, combined with a powerful vacuum pump, ensures rapid evacuation of the press chamber.

When laminating furniture surfaces with 3D PVC film and wrapping profiles, the heating elements are key to success, similar to heating solid surface materials or plastics. In contrast to a conventional vacuum press, where the membrane is used for sealing, the film itself acts as the sealing medium in a film machine. To ensure uniform heating across the entire film surface, the film is heated by a heating hood. The heating and pressing process is SPS-controlled, allowing furniture fronts, interior doors, or elements in shop and object construction to be reliably finished with films.

From HOB 03/2018

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