Shrinkage study of thermoformed parts

Most thermoforming product development processes rely on costly and time consuming forming trials to determine adequacy of the mold and process. This paper describes the predictive capabilities, which were developed from experimental, statistical and analytical methods in order to provide estimates of shrinkage for various process conditions. On the basis of theoretical analysis, additional transfer functions have been developed to predict shrinkage for different sets of materials, process conditions, and mold geometry. A turnkey finite element analysis system utilizing commercial software is being developed and validated for commercial applications for shrinkage prediction.