Plastic fabrication refers to the process technologies which are required to manufacture components and items which are made from plastic. This can encompass many different processes, and can range from one off welded multi-item bill of material plastic assemblies for the nuclear medicine industry, to laser cut items and components that are used in the shop fitting industry.
There are many processes that are employed in plastic fabrication and some of the main ones are:
o Laser cutting
o Line bending
o Mechanical cutting
o Welding: Bonding
o heat treatment
o Polishing
o Drape moulding bonding
The products produced by plastic fabrication is vast; control panels, access doors, machine windows, lids, guards, enclosures, equipment housings, and wear parts are among the many plastic components processed using plastic fabrication.
Laser cutting is a very cost effective process which is used for profiling components from plastic materials such as plastic sheet, plastic laminate sheet, polypropylene, polyester and acrylics.
Plastic machining is carried out on CNC controlled machines, and the beds of these machines are large enough to allow for fast and efficient matching of all different grades of plastic and block materials. Plastic machining is best used for high volume and large scale components.
Other processes used in the fabrication of plastics can include:
o Routing
o Milling
o Drilling
o Turning
o Laser profiling & laser engraving
Bending plastic can be carried out by using several different techniques, and line bending is an efficient and reliable process which is used for forming tighter radius bends in most formable plastic sheets. With line bending the main benefits are; set up costs are low, straight bends are produced efficiently and no tooling is involved.
Many applications in line bending focus on double or single parallel bends to create items such as equipment housings and rectangular covers, yet line bending can also be used to form fairly complex forms as well.