Heat Moldable Thermoplastics

[kees]

heya peoples. anyone know where to get sheets of heat moldable plastics? ive only ever seen them used for medical splints, but want to try using some to make custom interior trim bits.

 

kees

[coln72]

Ive seen people blow moulding PET (stuffed if I know its full name) or sheets of acrilic? to make canopies for human powered vehicles. I think at school they use HIP to blow mould bodies for model cars in one of the classes.

 

Think PET goes brittle with heat????????

[kees]

Ive seen people blow moulding PET (stuffed if I know its full name) or sheets of acrilic? to make canopies for human powered vehicles. I think at school they use HIP to blow mould bodies for model cars in one of the classes.

 

Think PET goes brittle with heat????????

 

thanks for the heads up, will give em a go.

[coln72]

try googling blue streak, its a hpv team that blow moulds their own PET.

 

sorta remember that yoy need to have a temp of 130C to do it with PET so you can use a home bbq (modified)

[raceflorolla]

For interior plastics you most probably want to use vacuum forming. Its where the sheet of plastic is heated up then sucked over a mould to create a shape. Blow moulding is used for closed objects like bottles, contaniers etc. You should be able to pick up thermoplastics (heat mouldable) from a plastic supplier somewhere in you area...yellow pages! Polystyrene is probably your best bet (not the foam, sheet plastic) because its cheap and comes in a range of thicknesses and colours. You can use acrillic but it doesnt flow aswell as polystyrene over moulds...

 

If your really keen, heres a link showing how to make your own vacuum former...

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/ELPFLBN6A9EYJ3I2F0

 

Cheers Sam ;)