‘Sheetless’ Thermoforming Now Does Twin Sheets

WEB EXCLUSIVE: LRM Industries International, Inc., Rockledge, Fla., has extended its Sheetless ThermoForming (STF) technology with the Twin Sheet Direct (TSD) process. Aimed at large industrial parts, STF eliminates the need to separately extrude, cut, and reheat sheet. It also avoids the need to stretch the heated sheet, which can introduce stresses and thickness variations. As we reported in January 2009, STF works by extruding from an overhead sheet die mounted on a traveling frame so that the molten web drapes directly onto a mold mounted on a trolley  on a racetrack. No ovens are needed. Now this mold “coating” process has been applied to twin-sheet forming of hollow parts.