Blog post from Marathon

“We would prefer to continue using Copsil™ rather than revert to UltiMat™”

For many years, Marathon has promoted the Copsil™ brand of press pads and they have enjoyed wide use in the laminate industry.

The more onerous demands of the short-cycle laminate industry, with increased requirements when laminating medium and high-density boards, including deep-structure design flooring which is particularly demanding for compensating pads, has resulted in the need to further develop our original concept of a woven silicone pad.

UltiMat™ is a superior performance pressure compensating pad

UltiMat™ has now superseded Copsil™ for a number of technical reasons. The main differences between standard Copsil™ and the UltiMat™ product range is the silicone thickness, type of silicone used, number of wires used, and the type of wires used in the construction of the silicone weft.

Our standard Copsil™ press pads have a core of 7 twisted copper wires covered by silicone. This specification is still in production and continues to be used by a number of customers around the world, although the number reduces year on year as the benefits of UltiMat™ are experienced.

UltiMat™ – a new concept in performance press pads

UltiMat™, with an innovative ‘collapsible weft’ incorporating 3 stainless steel wires within a modified silicone construction, results in a press pad with much improved compensation and increased life cycle expectancy.

The overall thickness of the UltiMat™ range is from 1.5 mm – 2.1 mm.

“Can you explain how UltiMat™ works?”

The 3 stainless steel wire threads making up the core of the silicone sheath now lie substantially parallel to one another.

In use, when pressurised in the laminate press, the core structure collapses as the threads making up the centre move relative to one another; the core tends to flatten out. This increases the springiness and compensation ability of the press pad without any loss of heat transfer ability.

This is surprising as stainless steel has a slower heat transfer ability than copper, but due to the construction of the ‘collapsible weft’ (3 ends of stainless steel in the cross direction and 7 ends of brass in the length direction), the UltiMat will have a total of 21 contact points at each cross over point.

In comparison to our standard Copsil™ press pad, which has 7 ends of twisted copper in the weft direction and 7 ends of twisted brass in the length direction, there will only be one contact point when the pad is under pressure in the press.

It is also important to note that the 3 stainless steel wires are much stronger than the 7 copper wires in the standard Copsil™.

To summarise …

We firmly believe that UltiMat™ is a more advanced pad design and trust that our customers will continue to use this in the future.

For further information please contact us on:
Telephone: +44 1706 657052
Email: sales@marathonbelting.co.uk

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