A press tool for a press assembly includes an additive manufactured body including a plurality of stacked layers of additive manufacturable material extending between an interior side and an exterior side. The interior side has a part forming surface including a surface profile for forming a part. The exterior side has a plurality of hollow cores defined by longitudinal walls and lateral walls meeting at joints. Press inserts are coupled to the longitudinal walls and the lateral walls at the exterior side. The press inserts are configured to be pressed inward by a pressing load during a pressing operation for forming the part. The press inserts distribute the pressing load along the longitudinal and lateral walls.

Herb oil pressing devices and methods are provided. The devices include a pair of closable opposed jaws that can apply pressure to a herb placed between the jaws; a motor connected to the jaws for controlling the closing of the jaws, and, when closed, controlling the pressure produced between the jaws; a heater connected to the jaws for heating the jaws and herb; a housing in which the jaws, the motor, and the heater are housed; and a user interface connected to the jaws and the heater, the user interface for inputting a selection of temperature, pressure, and amount of time the temperature and pressure is applied to a herb positioned between the jaws to extract oil therefrom. Related computer-implemented methods of pressing a herb are also provided.

A high-speed lamination machine includes a hinged, clamshell lid, and clamped lamination chamber that uses localized and thermally isolated heating and stepper driven separation pin motion. Pneumatically actuated rollers in a track clamp the lamination chamber closed during operation. The clamshell design obviates the need for a hydraulic press and makes the lamination chamber easily accessible to other automated systems, so robots may be used to place lamination elements within the chamber.

A heat press includes a base, a handle, a heater arm, a controller, a lower platen, and an upper platen. The handle is pivotally coupled to the base. The heater arm is pivotally coupled to the base. The controller is pivotally coupled to the handle and the heater arm such that the controller pivots from a first position to a second position during a pivotal movement of the handle from an open position to a closed position. The lower platen is connected to base. The upper platen is connected to the heater arm. A surface of the upper platen is separated from a surface of the lower platen in the open position. The surface of the upper platen is in contact with the surface of the lower platen in the closed position.

A method of laminating a contoured part including heating a flexible membrane, positioning the heated flexible membrane into thermal contact with the contoured part, maintaining the heated flexible membrane in thermal contact with the contoured part to raise a surface temperature of the contoured part, moving the flexible membrane out of thermal contact with the contoured part, positioning a laminate between the flexible membrane and the contoured part, conforming the laminate to a surface of the contoured part, and heating the conformed laminate and contoured part to adhere the conformed laminate to the surface of the contoured part. The laminate may be conformed to a surface of the contoured part by applying a vacuum between the flexible membrane and the contoured part.

A press (10) for manufacturing a sandwich panel comprises a first and second press plate (12; 14) that are movable with respect to one another. The press (10) has a fluid circulation loop for heating and cooling the press plates (12; 14). The fluid circulation N loop comprises a heater (22) for generating a hot fluid connected to a fluid supply conduit (24) in fluid communication with an inlet (18) of at least one internal flow channel (16) in each press plate (12; 14) and connected to a fluid return conduit (26) in fluid communication with an outlet (20) of the at least one internal flow channel (16). The fluid circulation loop is also provided with a controlled expansion valve (34) for cooling by conversion of hot pressurized water into steam, and a water source (38) for slow cooling.

A method of extracting one or more chemical extracts from a plant product includes mixing at least a first phytochemical-bearing part of a phytochemical plant product with an oil-bearing plant product, producing an oil mixture from the first phytochemical-bearing part and the oil-bearing plant product using a press device, and extracting at least a chemical extract from the oil mixture.

A heat press for extracting fluid, such as oil, from a biological plant. A lower heat platen is fixedly attached to a main frame and an upper heat platen is retractably positioned opposite to the lower heat platen. A pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder or a manual or electronic linear actuator provides pressure to an actuation means that is operatively connected to the upper heat platen for initiating movement. A control mechanism that consists of a single pressure regulator system or a dual pressure regulator system is used to control pressure of a pressing operation of the heat press. Alternatively, a digital regulator system can be used to control pressure, time, and temperature of a pressing operation of the heat press. At least one of the upper and lower heat platens has embedded heating elements and an isolated thermocouple. A user interface panel, having an LCD display, a user keyboard, or a touchscreen display is also mounted to the main enclosure.

The invention relates to a laminating device (10) and a laminating method for laminating at least one layer stack (11), comprising at least one substantially plate-shaped workpiece (11a) and at least one adhesive material layer (11b), by means of pressure and/or heat. The laminating device comprises a lower part (12) and an upper part that can be connected to the lower part (12) in a gas-tight manner. A working chamber (14) which can be opened and closed and which is for receiving the layer stack (11) during lamination is formed between the lower part (12) and the upper part (13). A pressure plate (15) can be moved along a press axis (a-a) in the working chamber (14) between the upper part (13) and the lower part (12). At least one sealing frame (21) is arranged between the lower part (12) and the upper part (13). Multiple pressure chambers that can be separated from one another and actuated as required are arranged in the working chamber (14), wherein multiple clamping points are provided spaced apart from one another in the direction of the press axis (a-a), wherein at least one flexible element is secured on one of the clamping points for separating a first pressure chamber (18), and the moveable pressure plate (15) can be moved via the application or non-application of pressure or negative pressure to said pressure chamber. Given that the flexible gas-tight element divides the working chamber (14) into a first pressure chamber (18) located above the flexible gas-tight element and a second pressure chamber (19) located below the flexible gas-tight element and in which the moveable pressure plate (15) is arranged, wherein the movement of the moveable pressure plate (15) occurs due to a pressure difference between the pressure chambers (18, 19), different operating modes of a laminating device can be performed in one unit.

A method involves heating fiber-reinforced semi-finished products of differing wall thickness to a required temperature above the glass transition range or the matrix melting temperature of a plastic matrix of the semi-finished product to be heated. In a first step, the semi-finished product to be heated is heated by thermal conduction to below the glass transition range or the matrix melting temperature. In a further step, the remaining amount of heat for reaching the required temperature above the glass transition range or the matrix melting temperature is introduced by thermal radiation or thermal convection.