Vacuforming, or Thermoforming is a process that uses vacuum and/or pressure to form a variety of plastic materials. The plastic sheet is heated to a very soft stage, then by force of vacuum, the plastic is sucked into or over a mold.

Matrix Enterprises makes our own molds from a variety of materials depending on the complexity of the geometry, coupled with the number of parts the mold is expected to produce. Molds can range from very inexpensive prototype or short run production units using MDF or tooling boards, to aluminum molds which have a long mold life.

We employ a cut-sheet method for vacuforming here at Matrix, and can form a blank that is up to 4? x 4?.

Vacuforming is a good approach for making large parts. It has the advantage of reasonable tool cost and fills the gap price-wise between hand fabrication and high production injection molding.

Materials that are very popular for vacuforming include ABS, Styrene, PETG. They range again in very inexpensive utility-grade materials to expensive materials that have special FR and UV ratings, if needed.