Century Tool expands compression molding capability to include bathtubs, spas

Century Tool and Gage, a Tooling Tech Group company (Macomb, Mich., U.S.) has announced that it's expanding its offerings to include compression molds for bathtubs, showers, spas and other large composite structures for the home.

“Century has a proven track record in the transportation industry for providing tooling that enables companies to manufacture composite components of the highest precision and surface finish such as Class-A exterior body panels,” says Scott Barrie, Century’s general manager. “This experience combined with our shop floor equipment makes it a natural for us to offer our mold-making capabilities to the bath and spa market.”

Century’s compression molds are said to accommodate materials such as sheet molded compounds (SMC), bulk molded compounds (BMC), direct long fiber thermoplastics (D-LFT), dicyclopentadiene (DCPD), resin transfer molding (RTM), or carbonfiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP). Within its 89,900-square-foot facility, Century has 15 high-performance machine tools for drilling, milling, 3D roughing, semi-finishing and finishing of both steel and aluminum for complex geometries and exacting tolerances. The company says it can produce molds in excess of 100,000 pounds and sizes of up to 343 inches long by 100 inches deep by 120 inches tall.