Thermoforming is the process of using heat to permanently change the shape of a flat sheet of any thermoplastic (most of our stock products). This can be done in several different ways. Drape forming, as we call it, involves putting the entire piece of material in a large, industrial, convection oven. This way the entire piece becomes malleable, after proper time and temperature the, once rigid, piece is removed from the oven in a completely flexible state and then laid over or into a prefabricated mold. After cooling and becoming rigid once again the piece retains the curvature or contour of said mold. This method is extremely useful for putting continuous curves across the entirety of a given piece. Think of the wraparound windshields often found on the fly bridge of motor yachts. If, instead of a continuous curve, a sharper bend is needed and the rest of the sheet is to remain relatively flat, strip bending may be a more suitable option. Strip bending involves heating just a straight line across a piece of material using a thin heating element in close proximity to the sheet. In this case just this isolated area or ‘’strip’’ of the piece becomes malleable. When heated enough the piece can then be bent across this line to any angle. Our large convection oven for drape molding is 7ft x 9ft x 4fthighand we have strip bending capabilities up to 8ft long and can handle bending material up to1.5’’thick.
