Vacuum Forming:
Vacuum forming is a low cost plastic thermoforming process for producing plastic parts. The process can economically produce large sized low volume parts at a reasonable price. Click here for more...

Pressure Forming:
Pressure forming can achieve the high quality and detailed look of injection molding, without the expensive tooling costs. By using air pressure on the back side of the sheet during the thermoforming process, textures, undercuts and injection molding details can be achieved. Click here for more...

The Thermoforming Process:

1.  Thermoforming starts with a flat sheet of plastic. Our machinery is capable of using a sheet size up to .500" thick and up to 72" x 90".

2.  The flat sheet is mounted into clamps and loaded into an oven. After a specified heating time, the sheet is removed from the oven and is ready to be formed.

3.  The hot sheet is located over or under the forming tool and the tool is brought up to the sheet. A seal is made around the sheet and a combination of vacuum and pressure cause the hot sheet to form to the shape of the mold. After forming has taken place, the sheet is held in place until the cooling process has finished.

4.  A formed part is removed from the clamping and is ready for the trimming processes. Trimming is done via saw cutting, drilling, hand routing, and 3 or 5-axis CNC machinery.

5.  An example of the detail that can be achieved with thermoforming.

6.  A finished part is cleaned and ready to be packed in a polybag.