Bladder Inflation

BIM stands for Bladder Inflation Moulding. By pressurizing silicon or latex custom-shaped inflatable bladders prepreg is pressed onto the tooling to produce closed,monolithic components with excellent inner surface quality compared with conventionally bagged surfaces. Due to the superior inside surface quality this process is well suited for parts such as airboxes or air filters.

We inflate the bladders inside aluminium tools which have in-built heating elements and temperature sensors. The temperature and pressure cycle is controlled with a PID control system. We generally use prepreg in combination with this process. This process enables the production of highly complex closed components and can even be used for large components of several meters of length as well.