Re: Thermoforming information wanted

From: Michael Tsenter (nest@primenet.com)
Date: Wed May 12 1999 - 19:23:29 EEST


Hi John:

METAPOR BF 100 AL block material is available in plates 500mm x 500mm
with thickness ranging from 10mm to 400mm. This product is porous, it
machines like hard wood, and is used for both prototype and production
tooling for thermoforming. In case of production tools, METAPOR inserts
are ususally placed inside aluminum base plate with standard water
cooling system. For prototyping applications, METAPOR is often
integrated with REN board from Ciba for complex areas of the mold.
Since METAPOR is completely porous it results in extremely high
definition allowing replication of complex surface patterns, logos,
etc. For flat surfaces METAPOR eliminates trapped air that can create
waves in the plastic sheet.

ESPOR Casting Technology is available as a service for production of
cast air-permeable shapes. This is a reverse casting process, so if the
pattern is "female" the mold will be "male". This process is especially
suitable for large and deep molds as well as for molds with complex
textures such as leather grain, etc. ESPOR has ZERO shrink, so the
molds are extremely precise. Also, we often integrate conformal cooling
lines for production applications.

Both ESPOR & METAPOR are also used for vacuum clamping and air-bearing
applications.

Rapid Prototyping patterns can also be used for vacuum forming. FDM
patterns are also porous, so there is no need to drill vacuum holes.
All other types of RP patterns can be used as long as they can withstand
the temperature of the plastic sheet.

If you need additional information about these tooling materials or
about vacuum forming machines, please contact me directly.

Sincerely,
Michael Tsenter

-- 
PORTEC - North America
a division of NEST Technologies, Inc.
3849 Ridgemoor Drive
Studio City, CA 91604 USA
Tel:	818-761-6500
Fax:	818-761-6116
e-mail:			nest@primenet.com
web site:		http://www.primenet.com/~nest

John Male wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm after some information about either a board or castable material > that can be used to make semi-porous thermoforming tools, which I think > was mentioned on the rpml. I've looked in the archives, but haven't been > able to find it. > > Does anyone have a web site address or email for the company that makes > the materials, or any information about them? > > Also, has anyone done any work thermoforming around any rp parts? Have > you come across any problems? How did they stand up to the process? > Which rp techniques have you tried? > > Thanks in advance, > > John > -- > John Male > Research Student > Centre for Rapid Design and Manufacture > Buckinghamshire University College > Queen Alexandra Road > High Wycombe > Buckinghamshire > England > HP11 2JZ > > Tel 01494 605085 > Fax 01494 538593 > > jmale01@buckscol.ac.uk > > http://www.buckscol.ac.uk/tech/crdm/crdm.html > > For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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