I am going to try to tell you in as few words as possible, how vacuum formed molds are made. The first step is making the "buck". This is the name of the piece that the forming will be done over. This has to be smooth, strong, heat resistant, and free of undercuts. The smooth part is self explanatory. The strong part is so that it will not be crushed when the plastic is being formed over it. The heat resistant part is because the plastic is at about 300 degrees F. And no undercuts is so that you will be able to get your piece out of the mold without having to cut the mold off. All these are of equal importance. They all must be done, and done right! This is the time consuming part of making the molds. Once this has been done the buck is placed on he table of the vacuum forming machine. The blank piece of plastic is clamped into its frame and heated. As soon as the plastic has reached it flow temperature it is pressed down onto the buck and vacuum is applied at the same time. The plastic forms over the buck and cools. This takes about 15 seconds! Once it has cooled (about 30 seconds) you pop the buck out, take the plastic out of its clamp frame and trim out the mold! That's it!! Copyright 2005 Delmar Germyn All Rights Reserved. |
