Thermoforming multilayer products

Film Applications Grilon CF 6S is particularly suitable for boil-in-bag applications. Grilon CR 9 is suitable for multilayer food packaging films for dry, nonfatty food packaging. Grilon CR 9 HV is a superior product for extreme-draw, thermoforming fiims.P i... 

Eurthermore, multilayer and fibre-reinforced composites as well as foamed semi-finished products (e.g. PVC slush skin for dashboards) are used in thermoforming. 

Thermoforming normally involves trimming of the final product, which leads to a significant amount of recyclable material. This material is reused for the extrusion of semi-finished products. Eor thick sheets it is common to extrude multilayer materials with a core from regrind, while the top layer is virgin in order to obtain a good surface quality. 

Various types of multilayer dies, such as the TRD, have successfully produced coextruded LCP-thermoplastic film, sheet, and thermoformed articles. These products are expected to penetrate the high barrier plastics market valued at more than 700 million per year for a variety of food, beverage, medical, and industrial packaging applications. Because of their very low permeability to oxygen and water vapor combined with high temperature and chemical resistance, coextruded LCP films should find applications in this market. The process for coextruded LCP thermoplastic multilayers overcomes the key problems previously limiting LCP coextrusion ... 

The thermoforming process is the method for annealing a sheet of thermoplastic resin to manufacture the final product by vacuum or air pressure, as shown in Fig. 6.9. It has these advantages The cost of equipment is inexpensive, the processing of multilayer sheets can be readily achieved, and the production of thin products is possible. The disadvantages of this process are that the procedure for preparing sheets is necessary, the selection of available plastic material is limited, and manufacturing with accurate dimensions is difficult. 

Sheet products made from mineral-filled LC polyesters variants or multilayer copper and LC polyester laminates have been used for thermoforming and electroplating for printed circuit board. 

Thermoforming is used to form products from multilayer sheets. Thick-gauge products include PVC-polymethyl methacrylate sanitary structures and polymethyl methacrylate- and fluoropolymer-capped ABS exterior transportation components. An example of a family of thin-gauge products is PS-ethylene vinyl alcohol-polyolefin barrier packaging. Heating and stretching of multilayer sheets often require trial and error to minimize interlayer delamination, excessive barrier film thinning, and incomplete replication of the mold cavity. 

Thermoforming of multilayer semi-finished products that are made of eompact layers, foam layers and/or textile layers has been established for interior cladding parts for RVs and tractors or combine harvesters, wherever decorative textiles are suitable as outer surfaces. The advantage of the process is the forming of the multilayer semi-finished product in only one process without any lurther lamination. Because of the foam middle layer, a soft-touch behavior is achieved. The parts show adequate mechanical properties so no carrier is needed. However, the textile surface is not suitable for interior cladding parts of modem vehicles because the perception of high quality and worthiness is insufficient. 

In this project, the combination of IMG and the thermoforming of multilayer semi-finished products is... 

Thermoforming, heating process, In-Mold-Graining, multilayer semi-finished products... 

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