For many thermoformers, if a plastic part’s volume or lead time requires that a part be run on a rotary thermoforming machine, there is only one acceptable type of tool to utilize; water cooled aluminum. A water cooled aluminum tool is usually produced by either machining a billet of aluminum to the correct size [...]
Rut Roh Raggy, Our Dog has been Found… In life, sometimes things you have lost have a way of returning back to you. My grandfather had a business called Art Forms where he produced sculptures and artwork for various companies, municipalities and organizations. His work can still be seen all over Indiana, surrounding states [...]
The design phase of the product development process is probably one of the most important, if not THE most important part of the product life cycle. Without a good design, a molded fiberglass or thermoformed plastic part can be expensive to tool up, expensive to build, expensive to ship and expensive to modify. Conversely, [...]
When it comes to putting the finishing touches on your company’s product, multiple variables usually come into play. The finishing touches need to provide a look that fits your company’s image as well provide any functionality that may be required. Covers, guarding, skins, etc are usually utilized for this purpose. Many times these guards [...]
Plastic products are so common nowadays that you can find products made via plastic in nearly every store you walk into. Walk down the electronics aisle of any retail store and you are bound to find USB drives, memory cards, webcams, headphones, speakers, etc all made from plastic. Usually these products are all made [...]
Why not steel or aluminum? Metal materials such as steel, aluminum and others have been used for years in many different industries. Each of these materials has its strengths but these strengths come at a cost. Thus, I thought it would make sense to type up a little series of blog post showing some [...]
At Arrowhead Plastic Engineering, we operate 2 separate facilities in east-central Indiana. One plant specializes in fiberglass composites and the other plant thermoforms plastic parts. We are often asked, "What's the difference between the two." That's a great question with a complex answer. Fiberglass is what is considered a thermoset composite, whereas Thermoformed Plastic [...]
Customers of Arrowhead Plastic Engineering benefit from decreased lead times and increased precision thanks to the company's seven 5-axis CNC routers. Arrowhead also has one 3-axis CNC. All of the CNCs have a 60” x 120” bed. The machines are capable of cutting hard woods, low and high density tooling board, low density foam [...]
Quick Summary: By utilizing our FARO Arm, Arrowhead can offer precision custom molded fiberglass and thermoplastic parts to our customers with even the tightest of tolerances. The FARO Arm allows for precision measuring, laser scanning and CAD generation, reverse engineering and physical part to CAD model comparisons. Whether it be measuring tooling for accuracy, [...]
There are many different methods a company can utilize to mold a fiberglass part. Some of these include but are not limited to: hand layup, spray-up, closed cavity bag molding, RTM, RTM lite, compression molding and cold molding. Each process has its own set of unique advantages and disadvantages. Please click the following link [...]
