Thermoforming is the process of heating thermoplastic sheets to a pliable state, which means that it can be moulded to form shapes and it sets when it cools. The vacuum is applied when the plastic is around the mould which means that extra air is excluded between the sheet and mould which results in a smooth finish. A well-known and common type of thermoforming is vacuum forming.

Vacuum forming is a simple type of thermoforming where a sheet of plastic is heated to a temperature. It can then be formed and stretched onto a single surface mould and held against the mould by applying a vacuum between the mould surface and the sheet. The mould is what gives the product its shape, and there’s a huge choice of what shape you can make because lots of different ones can be made.

You can use vacuum forming to make product packaging, the casing of speakers and it even extends to bigger products such as car dashboards. The beauty of it is that a variety of different products can be made from a single piece of plastic. It’s a highly specialised technique to be able to vacuum form.

When it comes to vacuum forming, it’s extremely important to consider draft angles, as they need to be in place so that your product can slip out of the mould easily and not cause any damage. When the product cools, it tends to shrink, so it’s also a good idea to take this is account.

A down side to vacuum forming is that it sometimes restricts you in what you can create, as products with a large depth can often be difficult to form, so it works best for more shallow products. However, there are other types of thermoforming processes that can be used if you want to create bigger products, such as drape moulding, plastic thermoforming and press moulding.

If you would like to find out more about vacuum forming then it’s a good idea to carry out research on the web. Vacuum forming has become more popular recently.. Free reprint available from: Vacuum Forming: All You Need To Know.