Pressure Forming

Pressure Forming

Pressure forming from Gregstrom Corporation produces plastic parts with crisp lines, tight corners, textured surfaces, and other intricate details. Ask Gregstrom to create custom pressure formed parts for your next project.

Pressure forming  from Gregstrom create formed parts with sharp lines and intricate details such as textured surfaces. This type of thermoforming applies positive pressure and vacuum pressure to opposite sides of a plastic sheet. The resulting pressure is several times stronger than in vacuum forming.

Advantages of Pressure Forming

Pressuring forming supports tight corners, texturing, and formed-in undercuts for recessed surfaces. Designers also like how pressure formed parts support zero degree draft on sidewalls. With this thermoforming method from Gregstrom, the tooling can be textured to ensure accurate, repeatable details. This part texturing is also integral and durable, and won’t scratch off like with painted parts.

Pressure Forming vs. Injection Molding

Plastics pressure forming is a cost-effective alternative to injection molding and can produce molded parts with a finely detailed appearance. Pressure formed parts have lower tooling costs than injected molded parts, too. Pressure forming also supports quick-turn prototyping and is a good choice for low-to-medium volume runs. This thermoforming technique can accommodate parts of all sizes.

Pressure Formed Plastics vs. FRP or Metal Fabrication

This plastics forming technique is a strong alternative to production methods that use fiberglass reinforced plastics (FRP) or metal parts fabrication. With fiberglass and metal, complex details and curves are not as easy to achieve. Consequently, production processes that use these materials can be significantly more expensive than plastics pressure forming. That’s why many manufacturers are choosing pressure formed parts for more complex and highly detailed projects.

Plastics Pressure Formed Applications

Gregstrom uses custom pressure forming to produce many different types of plastic parts. Examples from our portfolio include:

  • Instrument Housings
  • Instrument Housing Assemblies
  • Medical Laser Assemblies
  • Printer Assemblies
  • X-Ray Scanners

For an additional example of our pressure forming expertise, see the Medical Laser Assembly in our Featured Projects.

Made in the USA Thermoforming Services

For nearly 70 years, Gregstrom Corporation been forming and molding plastics at our Made in the USA manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts. To learn how our plastic contract manufacturing services can add value to your application, contact us on-line or call (781) 935-6600.