Special thermoforming techniques help pour success for the food & beverage industry

Profile Plastics rapidly developed 16 high-quality parts while eliminating the need for parts painting.

Thermoforming Accelerates Product Development for the Food and Beverage Industry

Successful food and beverage companies move from design to production at rapid speeds. This puts the squeeze on engineers who need to condense the product development process. When a manufacturer of a juice dispensing machine wanted to get to market quickly, the company turned to Profile Plastics for help.

Challenge: How do you speed time-to-market when you need to design numerous parts?

Accelerating the product development process is more challenging when engineers need to design numerous parts at the same time. That’s especially true when components need to fit together, and exterior parts must provide aesthetic appeal.

Snap-fits can be used for part attachment, but they require the use of undercut features that can complicate part ejection. Compared to injection molding, however, thermoforming more readily supports undercuts. The molds that are used in thermoforming also cost less and take less time to produce.

Solution: Partner with a thermoformer who provides greater value. 

Profile Plastics developed eight vacuum formed parts and eight pressure formed parts within a tight time frame. This effort required 16 separate molds, each with an acid-etched texture for a uniform cosmetic appearance across all the parts.

The juice machine manufacturer could have designed metal parts instead, but thermoformed plastic parts are lighter weight and less expensive. Thermoforming also provides the type of design flexibility and versatility that’s needed for faster time to market.

Importantly, Profile engineers help with the part design. The juicer’s external parts used formed-in tabs, which required undercuts but allowed for snap-fit assembly onto a metal framework. By using color-matched extruded sheet, Profile also eliminated the need for time-consuming parts painting.

Condensing the Product Development Process

Faster time to market is just some of what you can achieve when you have the right partner. By working closely with Profile Plastics, this manufacturer of a juice dispensing machine received 16 high-quality parts quickly, and in less time and at a lower cost than injection molding could provide.