thermoforming
Sign in to savethumb|Animation of the thermoforming process. Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mold, and trimmed to create a usable product. The sheet, or "film" when referring to thinner gauges and certain material types, is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that permits it to be stretched into or onto a mold and cooled to a finished shape. Its simplified version is vacuum forming.
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Procedure
- Developments
- Thin-gauge and heavy-gauge (thick) thermoforming
- Types of moulds
- Industry
- See also
- References
thumb|Animation of the thermoforming process.
Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mold, and trimmed to create a usable product. The sheet, or "film" when referring to thinner gauges and certain material types, is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that permits it to be stretched into or onto a mold and cooled to a finished shape. Its simplified version is vacuum forming.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “thermoforming” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.