Advanced Thermoforming: Methods, Machines and Materials, Applications, Automation, Sustainability, and the Circular Economy

Overview of advanced technologies in thermoforming including forming, filling, and sealing processes, and practical applications in various industries

Advanced Thermoforming offers an overview of and new insights into thermoforming by comparing current and new standards for forming and mold technologies, presenting concepts from the practitioner’s perspective in a case-study format showing the possibilities of automated processes, reviewing the forming, filling, sealing processes, and applications of technical parts and packaging.

The reader is guided along the path of design and development for machine and mold technologies and production processes. Along with updated content, this revised Second Edition adds new coverage of sustainability in packaging, circular economy principles, mold technology, electromotive applications, and developments in new polymeric materials. The text opens thermoforming to new applications and demands on plastic parts by covering advances in thermoforming machines, molds, and automation.

Advanced Thermoforming covers topics such as:

• Basics of thermoforming and thermoplastics, production of semifinished products, extrusion, and coextrusion
• Introduction to both heavy and thin gauge thermoforming
• New approaches for more sustainable rigid packaging through thermoforming
• Fuel tank production on sheet machines, automotive body and commercial vehicle applications, and production of refrigerator liners
• Sustainability and circular economy principles in thermoforming

Presenting an impressive variety of advanced thermoforming technologies in a very readable form, Advanced Thermoforming is an essential reference for polymer and plastics engineers as well asprocessors, technical engineers, R & D managers, new product development managers, automotive engineers, technicians, and equipment designers.

Sven Engelmann is the Director of Packaging Technology and the Thermoforming Technology Center at Illig Maschinenbau GmbH Co. KG in Germany. He is also a lecturer on thermoforming at the Aalen University of Applied Sciences in Germany.