substitute for plywood needed

Randy, Garolite G11 at $550 from Mcmaster, per sheet. Aluminum tooling plate, 2' x 6' $750 same source. Dave

Reply to
Mechanical Magic
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Welcome to the real world of manufacturing!

Paul

Reply to
pdrahn

Possibly something here:

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Reply to
Pete C.

Any plastic guru's here?

Looking to replace a peice of 3/4" plywood with some type of plastic. Application is in a heated press used to join rubber sheets. Problem with the plywood is it compresses in use, and as it gets thinner the bolts used to hold the whole thing together start to stick out and the unit requires frequent retorquing.

Need some type of plastic that does not compress like wood, can withstand 350 deg F for 1 hour, and idealy would have a coeffient of expansion close to aluminum.

Gargolite G7 looked nice until I saw the price of a 2 x 3 foot peice at $1140.00. I would need 2 x 4 or 5 foot peices.

Any suggestions.

Thank You, Randy

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Reply to
Randy

can you wrap the wood in high temp epoxy/fiberglass?

Reply to
charlie

...>

Particle board?

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Buy the aluminum plate... It's almost like money in the bank!

Wolfgang

Reply to
wfhabicher

Contact the tech support for companies like

3M and Dow Corning.

They might have a product that they can suggest.

If you are just looking for the insulation effect how about using 1/8" or so backed up with a sheet of al.

DOC

Reply to
doc

Nomex honeycomb aluminum faced panels.

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Kevin Gallimore

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Reply to
axolotl

Can you use longer bolts, and add a stiff spring to the back side? That way it wouldn't need re-torqued till the plywood was worn out. Also, what grade of plywood are you using? There are special grades used to make dies for cutting patterns.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Was the plywood you were using just regular fir or hardwood stuff? They do make a phenolic-clad Baltic birch plyboard for steel-rule press work. This stuff is about as stout a stuff as you can get in a wood product, it's used in a hydraulic press with a urethane die blanket opposing it for sheetmetal forming. Not sure how it would stand up to heat, though. Expensive stuff, too, last chunk I bought was 2x3 and ran about $40. You aren't going to get it from the local Lowe's or Home Despot, either. Strictly an industrial material, may take a little searching in your area to find it, called die-board around here. Cheaper than your Gargolite, though.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Sounds something like Jabroc

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Reply to
David Billington

Stan, That might be something, This is for a customer and I'm sure they were using Home Depot plywood.

The material has to be a thermal insulator as this sheet goes between the heater plate and another sheet of alum., and somewhere in there is an airbag to provide the force and some alum I-beams and tie bolts to clamp the whole thing together. The airbags need the wood sheet to limit the amount of heat they see.

I'll need to research the thermal conductivity of wood VS particle board VS Al honeycomb.

Wafer wood or particle board are pre compressed in their manufacture so that might be better, or the die-board or some other premium plywood might be better.

Where would one look to buy die-board?

Thank You, Randy

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Reply to
Randy

It is used by companies who make cardboard boxes. There should be someone in your area in that business who can point you to a local supplier. They may even sell you some, since they usually buy it by the pallet.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

...

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Have you already tried cement fiber board, like Durock, WonderBoard, and HardieBacker, or ceramic boards Fibrefrax and Micore? Re insulation value,

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lists Durock at .4 R-value per inch and the ceramics at 2.2. Cement fiber board is low-cost (ca. $10 for a 3'x5'x.5" sheet) and uncompressable until it breaks; the ceramics I'm not familiar with, but think they might be 5x as much, and may compress easily.

-jiw

Reply to
James Waldby

Polycarbonate (Lexan) is stable to 450°F IIRC. Perhaps you could glue the plastic to the plywood that has flat head bolts set into the wood so the top is smooth plastic.

Not sure about the expansion coefficient however.

Another idea would be to take two 1/8 sheets of the Lexan and solvent bond a grid of 1/2 square rod to make 4 to 6 inch squares in-between the two sheets. When the glue is set, drill a couple of holes in one side and fill it with a plaster of some sort, the plaster would prevent the skin material from flexing in under pressure.

If the expansion is a problem, you might get some woven Teflon fabric like they use on plastic bag sealers, and cover either the aluminum the plastic or perhaps both of the press platens. That might render the different expansion rates a moot point as they could move laterally with out pulling on the rubber sheets.

Another alternative would be to have the aluminum Teflon coated.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

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