General Plastics Pressure Forming. Low-cost, highly aesthetic parts of varying sizes are possible due to the application of air pressure.
Pressure Forming
The highly versatile pressure forming process utilizes positive air pressure flow, from 20 to 100 psi, to force the heated sheet into a temperature controlled aluminum mold. The final part features sharp definition of intricate contours and tight radii with a look and feel once only possible with injection molding. Textures and accurate details are built right into the tooling. Low-cost, highly aesthetic parts of varying sizes are possible due to the application of air pressure, as well as more sophisticated process controls that can better monitor tool and sheet temperatures while controlling material shrinkage during forming. Pressure forming achieves features beyond the capabilities of vacuum forming including louvers, ribs, recessed areas, crisp details and logos.
Pressure forming is ideal for:
- small to medium sized production runs (250-5,000 per year)
- Larger part sizes have greater tooling cost savings vs. injection or RIM molding (as much as 90% less!)
- aluminum tooling used in pressure forming has an unlimited lifecycle
- the process and tooling saves a great deal of money over many years of continued use
- pressure form tooling usually enjoys a significant time-savings in tooling lead time
- sheet gauges of up to 0.500″ can be used in pressure formed parts
- replacement of fiberglass and metal saving weight, cost and increasing recyclability