Rapid Molding services come with a dedicated staff of operators, and molding techs, and tooling engineers who have compiled many years of experience in speeding up and executing these processes. This expertise provides our clients with quality products delivered on time and on a consistent basis. The most commonly used thermoplastic injection molding materials are polystyrene, ABS or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, Nylon, PP polypropylene and PE polyethylene, Rapid Injection molding can also be used to manufacture parts from hard tooling materials such as aluminum, brass or soft metal; tooling, including Renshape urethane tooling boards, plaster, sand or RTV (rubber), including sand casting for large components or for particularly small parts.
Thermoforming Thermoforming or vacuum forming is a manufacturing process for thermoplastic sheet or film. The sheet or film is heated between infrared, natural gas, or other heaters to its forming temperature. Then it is stretched over or into a temperature-controlled, single-surface mold. Cast or machined aluminum is the most common mold material, although epoxy, wood and structural foam tooling are sometime used for low volume production. The sheet is held against the mold surface unit until cooled. The formed part is then trimmed from the sheet. The trimmed material is usually recycled - reground, mixed with virgin plastic, and reprocessed into usable sheet. Relatively deep parts can be formed if the form-able sheet is mechanically or pneumatically stretched prior to bringing it in contact with the mold surface and before vacuum is applied. There are several categories of thermoforming, including vacuum forming, pressure forming, twin-sheet forming, drape forming, and simple sheet bending. FEA finite element analysis is used to predict localized wall thickness of the formed sheet. Heavy gauge sheet is trimmed with multi-axis routers adapted from the woodworking industry. Normally, draft angles must be present in the design on the mold (a recommended minimum of 3°), Thermoforming is appropriate for transparent materials. Formability is relative to the starting sheet thickness gage and the depth of the pull, tool geometry and resulting wall thickness.
Twin Sheet Thermoforming
Extrusion Extrusion is used to create long metal or plastic parts of a fixed open or closed, cross-sectional profile. Hollow sections are created by placing a plug or piercing mandrel inside of the die. Extrusion dies are fairly in expensive but have normal 6- 12 week lead times. Secondary Operations Metal WeldingArc welding MIG welding TIG welding Oxyacetylene welding Ultra-Sonic Plastic Welding Post Molding - Machining
PROCESS
Modelmaking - Quick study concept
models (cardboard, Styrofoam, etc.) Breadboard – Crude
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