Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Vacuum forming Polypropylene

Dear Sir,

I am a product designer in India. I would like to know how does one vacuum form polypropylene? I am well versed in the process of vacuum forming materials like PVC, ABS, PC and to some extent Acrylic. We have tried at our end to form PP butwith little success. In this context while searching the web for some form of guidance, I stumbled upon this site and am posting this query.

Any help would be well appreciated.

Thank you.

Regards,

Vijay K M
- Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
 

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Hi Vijay!

We were never in vac forming only general heavy fabrication incl. sometimes some pressing of PP but I'd hazard a guess that it does not take too kindly to vacuum forming.

There are different grades of PP. One is the PP co-polymer but I'd assume that this is even worse as it seems to have an even stronger 'memory' and is a pig of the first water to even heat bend and (in the case of 3/8" material) it is necessary to precut 1/4" before 'bending' and then one has to weld it up whereas with PVC, for example, it is dead simple.

What do your suppliers say?

Cheers!

Freeman Newton [deceased]
(It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away
April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).