ABSTRACT
Press molding is a forming process wherein two halves of a mold are mounted on the platens of a press and the press is closed to force a molding compound to fill the cavity and maintain pressure in the compound until it solidifies (compression molding) or to hold it shut while a molding compound is injected and maintained under pressure by the injection ram until it solidifies (transfer molding and injection molding). If a preshaped dry fibrous reinforcement, called a preform, is placed in the mold cavity and a reactive liquid resin is injected to flow through the preform and then solidify, the process is called reactive liquid composite molding (RLCM). If the liquid resin is poured on the reinforcement and then the mold is closed to force the resin into the reinforcement and to fill out the cavity, the process is called preform molding or sometimes wet molding. Compression molding and reactive liquid composite molding are the topics of this chapter.
