**4.4 Compression molding**

Compression molding is the production of ballistic composites the heating of composite placed in mold cavity (female) or form (male) using a two-part mold system. The composite raw materials suffer applied force and pressure during contact with all mold areas, while heat and pressure are maintained until the molding material has been cured or sintered. This process can be used for ceramic-plastic or ceramic-metal composite production and heating of thermosetting resins for adhesives for the curing process. With compression on one side only, the result is an increase in pressure on the other side equal to the amount of vacuum being generated. Compression molding produces high-strength composite structures and complex parts in a wide variety of sizes. Compression-molded fiberglass or composite parts are characterized by net size and shape, two excellent finished surfaces, and outstanding part-to-part repeatability. This type of method enables the production of large-size parts beyond the capacity of extrusion techniques, and it can apply to composite thermoplastics with ceramic materials, UD tapes, woven fabrics, randomly oriented fiber mats, or chopped strands, also ceramics can be sintered by this method. Compression molding is one of the lowest cost options for the molding of complex composite parts. However, the slow production and limited largely too flat or moderately curved parts with no undercuts are disadvantages of this method.
