With a vacuum press, tall workpieces push even the most solid steel construction to its limits - and if the shaped tube of a membrane frame bends just a little, nothing works anymore. The vacuum quickly escapes and pressing becomes impossible. As practitioners, we have developed a solution for these cases.

Membranes - whether made of natural rubber or silicone - expand by approximately 700%, meaning that 1 cm of membrane becomes a maximum of 7 cm. That sounds like a lot at first, but if you put an 80 cm high workpiece in the press, for example, the limit is quickly reached.

The pressing surface of a medium-sized vacuum press, for example (Pioneer XL, internal frame dimensions 4130 x 1430 mm), has a pressure of approx. 50 tons. As soon as the maximum stretch of the membrane is reached, the pressure acts on the membrane frame. The long beam has to absorb extremely high tensile forces, which can cause even a shaped tube with a dimension of 140/60 mm and a wall thickness of 3 mm to bend. A fraction of a millimeter is enough and no more vacuum can build up.

If this happens with conventional vacuum presses and no test pressing was carried out without adhesive, the workpiece is now ruined. And - there is no solution in sight for the production of the part.

We have developed the Columbus Pressure Shifting Tool for these applications. With this ingenious device, the tension on the forming tube can be equalized within seconds and the vacuum pressure can be built up.

The Columbus pressure shifting tool is part of every vertical opening mechanism of the PIONEER vacuum press module system. Due to the module concept, any vacuum press with a flap opening can be upgraded with it.

This means you are always prepared against incorrect gluing.