Vacuum Forming Molds
Most people simply never think about how things are made. Products that are manufactured using vacuum forming molds are typical of this. It would be interesting if we could have all the items made this way just vanish for a few hours' time. We would have very few car dashboards, washing machine label areas, boat trim, and airplane interior trim.
The process is really not very complicated. Simply put, a sheet of plastic is heated, lowered over an aluminum form mold, sucked into place by tiny vacuum holes in the mold and then cooled.
After this there may be secondary and tertiary operations, such as trimming, decorating and painting. Eventually, a rather nice looking part is produced that is highly functional. One benefit of this process is that it does not take long to produce the mold, compared to injection molding, for example.
Randy Hough writes about vacuum forming molds.
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