Profile wins big in thermoforming competition

Profile Plastics Inc. of Lake Bluff, IL netted three parts competition awards at the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) 2016 Thermoforming Conference in Schaumburg. Company officials talked about their win in a Sept. 28 interview.

The company won gold in the heavy-gauge pressure forming category plus the Protecting Life Award. Conference attendees voted for the People’s Choice Award to go to Profile’s housing for a surgical waste management system.

Technical achievement wins

For the surgical waste system, Profile used advanced pressure forming tools to deliver a high-quality appearance with molded-in features. The design also reduced assembly time for the OEM. Seven vacuum-formed and three pressure-formed parts made up the front cover assembly.

An acrylic/PVC blend sheet is used to form top and front covers. The clear windows are polycarbonate. Machined aluminum tooling for the new front cover parts required seven pneumatic slides. The top cover tool uses seven pneumatic slides.

Profile had produced the cover of an earlier version of the waste system for the customer and played a key role in the new design. Engineers collaborated closely with the customer, making design suggestions that delivered key performance differences.

Design saved cost

One big design change improved manufacturability, improved appearance, reduced the number of parts required, and saved costs. Pressure forming allowed Profile to use tools with negative cavities, instead of the positive vacuum forming tools used previously.

Going from vacuum forming to pressure forming delivers an appearance similar to an injection molded part with reduced cost. The new parts feature an in-mold, acid-etched texture.

The innovative design reduced primary components by 75% and cut costs by 25%. Profile also did the assembly work for the customer.

More awards

The heavy-gauge pressure forming gold award also went to Profile for their innovative body protection plates for the chest and back, formed from anti-fungal thermoplastic urethane (TPU). The parts absorb large amounts of energy in a personal protection application.

Temperature controlled machined aluminum tooling was for the twin-sheet parts. A complex alignment system precisely formed parts on many critical connection points. The TPU material and part design require a special trimming system and equipment to cleanly make more than 150 high-tolerance vent-hole cuts.