The manufacturing division involves in it the process of thermoform molding which is used for producing a type of plastic termed thermoplastic.
Process of Thermoforming :In the process the film or, otherwise sheet used is first taken into the process of heating. The heating process of the used film or sheet is carried out using rays of infrared. Sometimes even natural gas is used for carrying out the process of heating. As a second stage the heated film or sheet is submitted to the stage of stretching. In the stage of stretching one surface mold is used for stretching the heated film or sheet.
Proper care is also taken to maintain temperature at needed points during this stage. The material used for the molding varies depending on each one's needs, preference and rate of production. The materials used for the above molding process is generally machined aluminum. The other list of materials used in molding is epoxy, structural foam and so on.
The stretching process of film of sheet is undergone till the sheet or film gets completely cooled. After cooling of sheet or film it is passed to the process of trimming. In the trimming process the product formed is trimmed from the film or sheet. These trimmed products are further submitted for processing under various stages to make it into a usable format.
The analysis and study of above process of thermoforming clearly depicts it involves various engineering and technology applications. Some to name in this direction are usage of infrared rays for carrying out the heating process of sheets or film, process of finite element analysis is used for predicting and calculating the thickness of sheet or film, usage of multiaxis routers for carrying out the trimming process. Thus it is very essential to have greater skills and expertise to produce products of greater efficiency in thermoforming process.
General Categories in Thermoforming :The two general categories in thermoforming are thin thermoforming and thick thermoforming. The categories are split based on thickness of sheet. The application usage of these categories also differs. For instance thin thermoforming are generally used in packaging which are to be disposed whereas thick thermoforming are used with permanent packaging because of its thickness attribute. There are still other categories of thermoforming and some to name are vacuum forming, twin-sheet forming and so on.
Thermoforming in its simplest form took its category as vacuum forming and the application of vacuum forming is in various daily usages like car dashboards, speakers and so on. The formation of microproducts which is nothing but final products produced in the range of micrometer using the above technology or process is coined as the process of microthermoforming. The process takes it usage among various branches. Some to name in this direction are life science branch where films of micro levels are made, in tissue engineering branch for research activities to be carried out and so on.
In recent days with modern technology advancements and knowledge the usage of thermoforming is rapid with the technology used with thermoforming process also getting rapidly upgraded which results in higher quality of products with precise heating and high efficiency level.