Everything You Need To Know About Thermoplastics
“Thermo” means “relating to heat”. “Plastic” can mean either a specific type of material or “the ability to be easily shaped”. Thermoplastics are plastic materials that can be easily shaped with heat. Thermoplastics have become a mainstay of industry and hence modern society. Here’s what you need to know about them.
Thermoplastics in industry
Most plastics can be shaped by heat to some extent. What makes thermoplastic special is the fact that they can be repeatedly heated and cooled without losing their strength. Scientifically, this is because thermoplastics are formed of long chains of repeatable molecules.
They are also easy to manipulate in their melted state. This is the quality that makes them so attractive to manufacturers. In simple terms, it’s what makes it possible to manufacture items of a consistent specification and quality with minimal time, effort and cost. What’s more, they’re actually more sustainable than you might think.
The three main forms of thermoforming
All thermoforming works on the same basic principle i.e. applying heat to manipulate the shape of a sheet of plastic. There are, however, different ways the technique can be applied. This allows flexibility to adapt the basic approach to different situations.
Vacuum forming essentially sucks the liquid plastic into a mould. It’s the quickest and most straightforward method of thermoforming. This makes it the most affordable. The potential downside of vacuum forming is that it’s only really suitable for producing simple items.
Pressure forming is essentially the reverse of thermoforming. It uses pressure to push the liquid plastic down onto a mould. This makes it slower and more complex than thermoforming. This in turn means that it’s more expensive. On the plus side, however, pressure forming can cope with more complexity and detail than vacuum forming.
Injection moulding is essentially a supercharged form of pressure forming. This means it has the same advantages and disadvantages but to a much higher level.
Thermoforming and innovation
Thermoforming has broken down some of the highest barriers in manufacturing. By doing so, it has opened the door to innovation and customization. Before thermoforming, there were really only two approaches to manufacturing. These could be described as “industrial” and “craft”. The former was all about economies of scale. The latter was all about individuality.
Now, thermoforming acts as a bridge between these two ends of the manufacturing scale. It offers the speed, consistency and cost-efficiency of industrial manufacturing. It also offers a high level of customizability. To be fair, thermoforming is highly unlikely ever to be able to offer the same level of customization as craft manufacturing. It is, however, much more affordable.
As a result, thermoforming makes it possible for companies to create small batches of products in a cost-effective manner. This has major benefits for everyone. Here are three of them.
Large companies can support legacy products
Most companies try to keep developing and improving their products. On the one hand, this means that, over time, their products will keep getting better and better. On the other hand, this means that, over time, existing products will become obsolete.
Many customers will happily upgrade but some will want to hold on to their existing products for an extended period. This can place companies in a quandary. Their business plan is to move on and focus on the present and future. At the same time, however, they want to do what they can to keep their previous customers happy.
Thermoforming can help to square this circle. It can make it possible for companies to continue to produce components to extend the lifespan of their old products. This improves sustainability, reduces cost and gives the customer a better overall experience.
Small companies can offer niche products
Most of the time, companies have to absorb the cost of producing an item before they can sell it. There are a few exceptions, such as crowdfunding campaigns. These are, however, the exception rather than the rule. Even here, companies have to absorb marketing costs. They also have to price their product at a level people can afford.
Thermoforming makes it possible for small companies to produce small runs of products that are only of interest to a small group of people. This may not sound like much of a benefit but it’s important to remember the difference between quantity and quality.
In other words, these products might not benefit a lot of people but they might be a lot of benefit to a small number of people. A typical example of this would be a medical device that helps to control a rare condition.
Companies of all sizes can reduce R&D costs
Thermoforming provides an accessible way for companies to create and develop new products. They can create small batches of prototypes, test them thoroughly, make adjustments and repeat. What’s more, this can be done in a relatively short time frame. This maximizes the company’s chances of getting the product to market quickly.
Thermoforming and sustainability
The fact that thermoforming is based on the use of plastics might raise environmental concerns. In reality, however, these concerns are largely misplaced. A lot of the plastics used in thermoforming are easy to recycle. In fact, this is often used to advantage in the thermoforming process. For example, offcuts can be melted down into new sheets and reformed.
Overall, thermoforming offers a significant number of advantages compared to standard “industrial” manufacturing. Most of these relate to its high degree of efficiency. In short, it turns minimal resources into maximum product and thus has a very light environmental footprint.
What’s more, the simplicity of thermoforming means that it’s fairly easy to set up production plants. This can help to limit the need to transport the goods produced over long distances. In fact, in some cases, it can eliminate it completely. For example, a company could install its own thermoforming machine to create prototypes.
Even when it is necessary to transport goods, the fact that thermoforming uses plastics means that the products are both robust and light. The robustness means that they need minimal packaging to protect them in transit. The lightness and lack of packaging mean that they need minimal fuel for their journey.