Thermoforming ++ technologies for Making Parts of Agriculture & Off-Highway Equipment

Agriculture & Off-Highway Vehicles require parts that are having class A-surface with UV resistance and have strength on the B-surface.

Common parts that require the use of thermoforming are: Engine Hood, Fender & Sunroof

This requires thermoforming ++ solution - the thermal vacuum moulding process is used to produce the A-surface & back-foaming is used for re-inforcement in the B-surface

An example machine to realise such parts could be the PF1-3020 with max. forming area 3000 x 2000 mm and depth of 800 mm & hydraulic press of 40 tonnes to back foam the thermoformed skin.

The thermoformed skin is usually thermoplastic material like ABS/PMMA or ASA - 2 to 4 mm thick. The material is class-A high gloss with UV resistance.

Back-foaming with PU reduces vibrations, acoustic noise for NVH, provides re-enforcement & can add integrative functions. Material can be rigid PU-foam system OR fibred-glass mixed into Polyol.

Structural reaction injection molding (S-RIM) is a variations on the reaction injection molding (RIM) process - which focuses on increasing the stiffness. SRIM reinforces the molded part via the use of glass fibres. SRIM relies on fiber mats placed into the mold prior to the injection of resin.

An improved version of SRIM is also the long fiber injection molding (LFI) technology, as it provides similarly strong and stiff parts via a quicker and more efficient process.

Why choose Thermoforming +SSRIM/LFI process?

The traditional method to make parts for agriculture & off-highway vehicles is the hand lay-up process of glass fibre (GRP / GFK) followed by a paint process. The advantage of this method is the lack of investment in tooling and availability of vendors who can do the job. There are very few high-class suppliers who have invested in the machinery for thermoforming + SSRIM/LFI process. The other advantage is there is no-need to paint the parts and the parts are much more environment friendly to produce with lower CO2 emissions. In some cases the parts made using thermoforming + SSRIM/LFI are even cheaper than glass fibre based parts.

Machinecraft can help you with the capital investment in machinery required for thermoforming & SSRIM/LFI and also design & produce tools required for the same.