Go to any store, office or home and you will find a wide variety of items created from plastic. Of course, there are many different types of plastics and many different ways to create products made of plastic. Here are some different methods that are used to process plastic and some examples of the products created by each method.
Injection molding is one of type of processing, and in this process plastic is heated and then injected into a mold. Injection molding also can be used to create products out of metal or glass, although the use of thermoplastic granules is the most common. Thermoplastic comes in many varieties, and in general, refers to a type of plastic that can be melted and molded and then returned to the original state when cooled. Injection molding is one way to process thermoplastics, and while the finished product generally is of a high quality, this method is quite expensive and many companies prefer to use thermoforming instead.
Thermoforming is a very common method that is used to process plastic and transform it into something highly useful. The process begins by creating a mold of a specific product. Sheets of plastic, rather than granules, are created out of specific polymers and will then have heat applied to them in order to make them easy to shape. The plastic is placed into the mold and any extra plastic will be trimmed away. Some examples of thermoformed plastic include many types of packaging, from food packaging to the packaging of virtually millions of products that we can buy at the store.
This is the basic process, but there is certainly more to the story. For one thing, there are different types of thermoforming. Vacuum forming is fairly easy to understand. The plastic sheet is heated until it reaches the ideal level of pliability then it is placed on top of the mold and vacuum is used to draw the plastic until the mold.
Sometimes vacuum forming isn't enough and you need to add pressure as well to move along the formation process. This is known as pressure forming, and it is an ideal process when you are making plastic products with a large amount of detail, such as a molded texture or perhaps raised or recessed type on your product. The addition of pressure along with the force of the vacuum really pushes that plastic down into the mold.
There are thermoforming companies that can assist you with all of the elements of creating your products, from helping with design to finding a production process that meets your needs and budget. Your costs will be affected by many aspects such as the type of plastic you use, the amount of items being produced and the type of thermoforming that is used to create the product.
Injection molding is one of type of processing, and in this process plastic is heated and then injected into a mold. Injection molding also can be used to create products out of metal or glass, although the use of thermoplastic granules is the most common. Thermoplastic comes in many varieties, and in general, refers to a type of plastic that can be melted and molded and then returned to the original state when cooled. Injection molding is one way to process thermoplastics, and while the finished product generally is of a high quality, this method is quite expensive and many companies prefer to use thermoforming instead.
Thermoforming is a very common method that is used to process plastic and transform it into something highly useful. The process begins by creating a mold of a specific product. Sheets of plastic, rather than granules, are created out of specific polymers and will then have heat applied to them in order to make them easy to shape. The plastic is placed into the mold and any extra plastic will be trimmed away. Some examples of thermoformed plastic include many types of packaging, from food packaging to the packaging of virtually millions of products that we can buy at the store.
This is the basic process, but there is certainly more to the story. For one thing, there are different types of thermoforming. Vacuum forming is fairly easy to understand. The plastic sheet is heated until it reaches the ideal level of pliability then it is placed on top of the mold and vacuum is used to draw the plastic until the mold.
Sometimes vacuum forming isn't enough and you need to add pressure as well to move along the formation process. This is known as pressure forming, and it is an ideal process when you are making plastic products with a large amount of detail, such as a molded texture or perhaps raised or recessed type on your product. The addition of pressure along with the force of the vacuum really pushes that plastic down into the mold.
There are thermoforming companies that can assist you with all of the elements of creating your products, from helping with design to finding a production process that meets your needs and budget. Your costs will be affected by many aspects such as the type of plastic you use, the amount of items being produced and the type of thermoforming that is used to create the product.
About the Author:
Lenna Stockwell enjoys blogging about how stuff is made. For further info about plastic thermoforming solutions or to find out more about retail product packaging, please visit the Indepak.com site today.
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