Processes
BLADDER MOULDING
Bladder moulding is a technique where a custom-made inflated silicone pressure bag or a solid silicone intensifier provides the consolidation pressure within a fully enclosed tooling system, this process uses aluminium tooling, which is placed into a heated platen press for the curing cycle. This method is faster than autoclave processing due to the ability to heat tools more quickly and demould at elevated temperatures.
Bladder mould tooling produces hollow or single-sided parts, similar to an autoclave. However, it allows for undercuts and intricate details due to the high pressures involved and the ability to use removable inserts in the aluminium tooling. One side/ the outer surface of the component will have a tooled ‘A’ surface, while the other, or internal surface, will be the ‘B’ or bag surface.
Bladder moulding is not limited to monolithic components; foam cores can be used to add stiffness to specific or larger areas and composite hardpoints can be co cured in position.
One of the overarching benefits to using aluminium tooling and heated press curing is that bladder moulding, and compression moulding can be combined in hybrid tools offering the precision and surface complexity of compression moulding along with the tooling simplicity of using a pressure bag.
