Sheet thermoforming machine

for hollow plastic partsfor automotive partsPLC-controlled

Ceramicx supplied a British thermoforming customer with a solution for its sheet material. The furnace system was developed and customised to their material, temperature and power requirements. The single sided industrial furnace was fully integrated into their production line and allowed for the customer’s material to be heated uniformly, consistently and repeatably prior to the forming process occurring. The radiant oven was controlled by a Siemens PLC/HMI with a Hetronik HC500 power output module. As standard, the frame was a made from stainless steel with Ceramicx proprietary reflectors employed to increase the infrared heating efficiency of the oven. The process was a cut sheet process for the thermoforming of car interior liners – in this case the boot space. Black carpet onto black plastic sheet was robotically loaded onto a moving table and then moved across into the heated zone. The infrared heating system is applied to the top and bottom of the part for a specified time. The sheet then gets moved on to the surface where it is slowly pressed into the required shape. The component then cools down inside the mould, before it is removed and the trimming and finishing process takes place. The result was that the customer was extremely impressed with how fast the ceramic heaters got to their required temperature, and the ease at which the IR heaters found and remained at the required temperature set-point. Ceramicx has since worked on another project with this supplier and supplied them with a second infrared heating system for a different manufacturing facility in the UK.