Saturday, February 15, 2014

How A Thermoformed Plastic Packaging Is Made

By Jerri Perry


The work of a custom thermoforming company is to manufacture high quality products from custom thermoforming. These may include; thermoformed medical devices, plastic panels, custom plastic radomes, and thermoformed plastic enclosures. They are majorly interested in meeting the thermoforming needs of the customers. Thermoformed plastic packaging products are also customized made by such companies and there are a number of steps involved.

Most companies usually use the in-house tooling capabilities to control nearly all aspects of crucial phases of thermoforming business. They can also have aluminum, temperature-controlled molds, trim jigs, and fixtures that are custom made for every project. Usually, these companies have to adopt the basic custom thermoforming process of manufacturing thermoforming products.

The initial step of thermoforming involves assembling flat plastic sheets. The companies usually use different sets of machinery to thermoform various types sheets. Mounted clamps of the sheets are then placed on an oven for heating. This takes a specified amount of time before the sheet is removed and then formed. The hot sheet is then placed over or under the tool used for thermoforming as the tool is moved closer to the sheet.

In the next step, a seal is made around the sheet and a combination of vacuum and pressure is used to force the sheet to form the shape of the mold. After the sheet has been molded, it is held in place until the cooling process is over. The next step involves removing the sheet from the clamping and preparing it for trimming. The trimming can be done in a number of ways such as drilling, saw cutting, hand routing, and 3 or 5-axis machinery.

After the completion of the thermoforming process, the finished part of the sheet is cleaned and packed in polybags for distribution. Most of these companies also engage in other thermoforming services. Some of these are; heavy gauge thermoforming, thermoforming mold making, twin sheet thermoforming, pressure forming and vacuum forming. The vacuum forming process is best suited for manufacture of medical products.

Another version of the vacuum forming is pressure forming. It mainly adopts the traditional thermoforming techniques to bridge the appearance gap. Pressure forming is still regarded as an ancient mode of thermoforming and mainly used by the industries dealing with thin-gage plastic packaging. The twin sheet pressure forming on the other hand involves heating two sheets together and forming them at the same time. The sheets are normally preformed into respective molds and then pressed back together.

During the molding process a pin is attached to one of the sheets and air is blown to enable them form through pressure. The pressure and heat are then used to form the sheets as one unit. Most products made through this process normally look like those made from rational molding or blow molding.

Heavy gauge thermoforming can be used for the manufacturing of electronic, medical and industrial products. The process is used to make sturdy rigid enclosures used in equipment such as medical devices, computers, electronic enclosures, radomes, exercise equipment, and outdoor equipment. The products made through this process have a wide range of thickness because it uses machines that can accommodate thicker sheets. If in need of thermoformed plastic packaging then it would be best to approach the custom thermoforming companies in order for you to get exactly what you need.




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