Thermoforming product design

Several general parameters affect thermoformed product design. 

When not being used in conjunction with another process, like thermoforming or blow molding, profile extrusions are the variety most often used by product designers. They can be either solid or hollow and, for the most part, are made of thermoplastic materials (although thermoset materials can be extruded with special equipment). Therefore, the effect of nonuniform cooling is precisely the same for extrusion as it is for the molding processes sink and distortion. 

STAT (Sheet Thinning Analysis for Thermoforming, GE Plastics, Pittsfield, MA). This thermoforming FEA design model for programming and product development basically takes the same approach as PITA (just reviewed). 

Designers and processors to produce products at the lowest cost have unconsciously used the basic concept of the FALLO approach. This approach makes one aware that many steps are involved to be successful, all of which must be coordinated and interrelated. It starts with the design that involves specifying the plastic, and specifying the manufacturing process. The specific process (injection, extrusion, blow molding, thermoforming, and so forth) is an important part of the overall scheme and should not be problematic. 

Thermoformed chassis and body panels are featured on the car. The products were made initially in the USA for assembly in China. The car will weigh less than 2000 lb (900 kg). Automotive Design Composites, Inc of San Antonio, TX, designed the vehicle to have body panels and trunk formed from coextruded sheet of ABS with an ASA cap layer that will hang on a pultruded composite frame. Ceramic tooling is used to thermoform plastic products. 

Thermoform Packaging Product Development Design Container Label Printing Biodegradable Plastics... 

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