Here at Queen’s University in Kingston we are making the first press prototype these days (July 2007). The whole process is quite exciting for us all, but sometimes frustrating, of course. In the pages below, I will describe the press design, point out the things to watch out for while building the prototype, and describe the building process in a step-by-step fashion. As we gain experience testing and commissioning this prototype, I am sure that there will be changes necessary, but, of course, we are not aware of them now. As usual, every prototype is perfect on paper and on the screen, until built and tested.

The Kingston Hot Press (KHP) is a manually operated hot press designed to make tiles of composite plastic, up to 610×610 mm (24×24 in) size, 1-10 mm thick. The press is designed to provide up to 6 MPa pressure (870 psi). The total force required for pressing is thus around 200 tons (2 MN). The temperature can be adjusted up to 250°C. The key design challenge was to make a manually operated press able to supply very large force, and yet be affordable and relatively easy to make.

Here is what the current press design looks like: