Since Arrowhead's founding in 1972, we have been designing and molding various thermoformed products for the heavy truck, bus and specialty vehicle industries. Generally speaking, these industries tend to have a need for a variety of different thermoformed parts, but the volume on each one is much smaller compared to that which you would [...]
Whether your part will be made from molded fiberglass or thermoformed plastic, Arrowhead can help you with the product’s development from concept to production and everything in between. Sometimes it's a sketch on a napkin. Sometimes it's a sophisticated CAD model. Sometimes it's a previously produced prototype. Regardless of where you are in the [...]
Arrowhead Plastic Engineering is a company who thermoforms plastic parts into a variety of different shapes. I am a resident of Mother Earth and don’t want to see her cluttered with debris, waste and filth. I also am a person who lives in the 21st Century and understands the benefits, conveniences and necessity of items [...]
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 [...]
Let’s talk textures. Texture is an area in which thermoformed products have a distinct advantage over many other plastic processes such as injection molding, rotational molding, blow molding, etc. Unlike fiberglass and the aforementioned plastic processes, thermoformed (or vacuum formed) parts which require a texture don’t pick up this texture from the mold surface. The [...]
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 [...]
