Vacuum forming or “Thermo” is considered one of the oldest methods of processing plastic materials. You may have seen vacuum formed products around you at various places. No doubt, vacuum formed products play an important role in our daily lives. Also, they are present all around us (we may not notice them most probably). 

In simple words, the simplest type of plastic thermoforming is vacuum forming. In order to form a vacuum forming, a highly-intelligent machine known as a vacuum forming machine is required. During the manufacturing process, vacuum pressure and a mold are required to obtain the specific part geometry. 

We use numerous products in our daily lives that are vacuum formed. For example, plastic bathtubs, plastic appliances, utensils, etc. Moreover, many other products are also obtained through vacuum forming. Some products are mentioned below:

• Boat hulls
• Exterior shop design
• Parts of vehicle cabs
• Ski-boxes
• Yogurt pots, and more. 

Various materials can be used in order to form a vacuum forming. Some are mentioned below:

• Polystyrene PS
• Acrylic PMMA
• Polycarbonate PC
• Polypropylene PP
• Polyester copolymer PETG
• Polyvinyl chloride PVC, and more. 

Each of the vacuum forming materials mentioned above has some unique features which come from properties, atomic makeup, as well a range of additives. The great characteristics of vacuum forming material are easy to form with low thermal strength, temperature, high impact strength, and similar features like that.

Advantages of vacuum forming:

• Easy scale production down or up and new components can be made easily when needed
• Can support fast prototyping processes
• Customizable and versatile mold sizes and shapes
• Cheap method to obtain high-quality material
• Typically stable sizes and shapes can be obtained from batch to batch