The mold was then pushed up into the hot plastic and the vacuum pump was turned on. The vacuum pump ran a programmed amount of time and then the mold was automatically was lowered. The finish part was then removed from the clamped frames. The temperature and time for each part was recorded and can be seen below. The following measurements were taken on selected parts.
All dimensions are in inches.
The vacuum forming process was simple to do and worked well once the optimal operating temperature and time were found. The time was kept the same to eliminate a variable while the best operating temperature was found. The thermoset casing part of the lab was shortened to just a demonstration of the process. Two different mold conditions were studied to view the affect on the part that was being produced. A difference was seen in how the compounds cured.