cushion 11 slightly prestressed according to the deadweight from the speed v 0 mm sec to the braking travel speed of the press ram 6 non positive coupling by means of the collet locking system 3 7 and 13 can thus take place in a damped manner without interrupting the movement of the press ram and impact free for the mass of the piston 8 and of the pressure rods 5 when the counter contact 18 touches the stop 17 the build up of the pressing force begins and the parallel alignment control is started a servo controlled switching valve 54 reacting proportionally to the volume of pressure medium supplied is assigned directly as an actuator to each cylinder 4 the mechanical stops 16 and 17 are fastened adjustably in the guide rails 19 so that moldings 31 of different thicknesses can be produced the traveling motion of the plunger 9 can also be controlled and regulated via a central timing and or path measuring system via a numerically controlled computer system 100 fig3 shows in a path time pressure diagram with the moldings 28 and 29 represented diagrammatically the production cycle according to the invention for a workpiece 31 from the starting of the plunger 9 at 21 to the end of the compression time at 33 the plunger stroke is plotted on the abscissa and the closing speed is plotted on the ordinate on the speed profile curve 22 denotes the start and 23 the end of coupling between the cylinder 2 and the pressure rods 5 parallel alignment control begins at 23 at the same time whilst the start of material contact is indicated at 25 the arrows at 26 show the short.