The display of creativity in thick sheet material thermoforming technology
Release time:
2025-11-08
From casting to thermoforming
A medical device manufacturer is ready to move from prototype production to medium-scale production. During its prototype design and approval process, it used polyurethane casting to create panels for the shells of its medical devices. However, it was limited by manufacturing capacity, high per-piece costs, and consistency issues between parts.
By switching from polyurethane casting to thermoforming, the medical device manufacturer was able to significantly reduce costs, increase manufacturing speed, improve durability, and ensure part-to-part repeatability, while meeting future demand and the need for increased capacity.
In the medical device development process, prototype design is typically used to make quick changes during product development and certification. However, after the product was certified, a medical device manufacturer in Southern California encountered the limitations of the manufacturing process used during the prototype production.
Polyurethane casting has significant limitations that make it a poor choice for medium-scale production runs. The process uses soft silicone molds that must be remade after approximately 25 pieces, and the production speed can be a significant bottleneck. Since the molds change during production, differences between parts are not uncommon.
The design company worked closely with the manufacturing team at RayProducts and the engineering team of the medical device manufacturer to ensure they could take full advantage of the new process. This meant reducing the total number of bosses, designing undercut features to increase stiffness and improve fit, and working on other connection points to reduce total manufacturing and assembly costs while improving aesthetics.
To obtain the required undercuts and tight-tolerance parts, the thermoforming machine uses machined aluminum molds. High-quality molds can also be textured to the tool when shaping colors. When using a 6-axis robot decorating center to complete part production, molds that provide part-to-part repeatability are crucial.
Thermoforming technology can also be used to develop scalable manufacturing processes. When the initial volume of medical device manufacturers is low, painting the finished components is a cost-effective choice. As the number of customers increases, the plan can apply the color forming process, which will reduce costs while still maintaining aesthetics and quality.
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