Formech’s Machine Appears in 60 Minutes Story on Client IDEO

Formech Machines Integral to IDEO’s “Empathetic” Design Excellence

Imagine our excitement upon viewing video of our customers IDEO (David Kelley) which ran on 60 Minutes Sunday, January 6, 2013 and seeing footage of our FORMECH MACHINE being used!

In a candid discussion on design and fabrication lab IDEO, founder David Kelley explains their approach to design being a collaborative one and shows off several innovations made by their team.  At the 2:10 mark watch as their Formech thermoformer is put through its paces.

IDEO using Formech Vacuum Formers in their fab lab.

The piece on IDEO goes on to mention two more of our prestigious clients, Steelcase and Stanford University’s d. School for design.

One thing this video confirms, when you need the very best, it’s Formech.

View The entire 60 Minutes video.

Formech Presents On Energy Efficiency At National Museum in Milan Italy

Formech recently participated in the “Open Night” at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, Italy.  A key theme of the show was energy efficiency and what energy saving means with opinions from energy producers, transporters, distributors and users all being voiced.

Formech demonstrated vacuum forming model boats with their popular desktop model 300XQ in the suitably nautical Leonardo da Vinci section of this impressive museum!

Formech are proud to class their machines as “ENERGY EFFICIENT” with energy saving features such as quartz heaters and heat stand-by.  For these reasons, Formech was invited to attend and exhibit.

A fascinating night was had by all those exhibiting and visiting with the chance to see a wide range of technologies on display.

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Formech Vacuumforming Machines & Equipment Catalog–In Downloadable PDF!

Is your old thermoforming machine giving you a headache?  Perhaps it’s time for an update.  Or maybe you’re just starting out in the hot field of rapid prototyping.  Consider Formech Vacuum Forming machines to give you that competitive edge.  With 30 years as an industry leader, picture yourself forming to perfection with one of Formech’s top notch machines by your side.

Download our catalog and see what your future could be like with a Formech.  View all the machines we offer AND their specifications.  Did you know we can also create a custom built model to suit your specific needs?  Take a look now, you’re sure to find exactly what you’re looking for with Formech.

Formech Americas, Formech Inc, Thermoforming/Vacuumforming Machines Catalog

Case Study: The Idea Shop at the Illinois Institute of Technology

 

The idea shop is a 13,000 square foot collaborative learning space and digital fabrication lab for the IIT community. It is located in the University Technology Park, an incubator for start-up companies. By bringing together people from different backgrounds and areas of expertise and providing materials, human resources, technology, equipment, all in one place, the Idea Shop is an ideal space for generating and disseminating good ideas and coming up with great solutions to real-world problems. The Idea Shop also  provides opportunities for the surrounding community through workshops, seminars, outreach activities, summer programs, and more.

       “We (The Idea Shop) purchased our Formech vacuum former to complement the other digital fabrication equipment. Using AutoCAD our CNCs, our 3D printers and our traditional wood working tools we are able to easily create a wide rang of molds to use in our vacuum former. This gives our inventive students many options and the ability to create professional final products. The students in the Idea Shop are finding answers for the problems facing people all over the world. We have a team working on an incubator for premature infants in developing countries. The team is using easy to find parts and the are putting together a build it yourself kit to be shipped all over the world. The team plans to use the vacum former for molding the half dome of the incubator and for securing the vital components that must be protected.

We used our vacuum former to help us keep the project work we require our students to do organized. In the summer we run programs that involve many teams working on many different projects at the same time. Our vacuum former has helped us to create custom trays to keep they parts for our rocket project and our robotics project protected and organized. To create the custom trays we start by creating a drawing of what we want in AutoCAD. From there Joe Luciani, the Idea Shop Lab Manager, does the tool pathing in Visual Mill, then the form is cut out of wood on the CNC. (We could also do it from aluminum) Once the form is out Joe sands it down and drills in air holes. Then Joe places the newly milled mold into the vacum former and in moments we have a usable tray custom designed to fit our needs. Joe releases the mold and uses our 50 watt laser cutter to make a clean edged cut.”

– April Welch | Manager | The Idea Shop at IIT

Photo of the project below:

DIY: How to Easily Replicate Existing Patterns and Tooling

Formech: Forming to Perfection Create a box for your mold to support the sides and bottom. This will also make an environment for you to pour your resin so that you decrease the chances of spilling or uneven pouring. Keep the size and shape in mind when building the box. This example is rather large and will be quite heavy when completely filled. Select a casting resin that will be able to withstand the heat from the thermoforming process. This particular resin has an aluminum base and will do the job well. Other resins that are useable for this process have mineral a mineral base. Companies like Smooth-On make several viable options (i.e. Task 18). These resins come in two parts, the resin and the activator. The most common ratios are 1:1 or 1:10 and are always measured by weight. www.smooth-on.com Using an electric mixing attachment is vital to achieve uniform consistency so that all the resin cures properly. When purchasing a resign pay attention to the pot life. This is the amount of time you have to work with the resign before it starts to cure. Next we will allow the mixed resin to sit for a 1-5 minutes to release any air bubbles that may be present. Air bubbles can have a drastic effect on the aesthetic and functionality of the tooling. Remember to coat all surfaces of the mold with mold release so that you can easily extract the finished tooling. Then apply a thin layer of casting resin to the surface of the mold. Including this step will drastically reduce air bubbles on the surface of the tooling and leave a a smooth exterior. Once you have coated the mold it is time to pour the rest of the compound into the cavity being mindful of the pot life. Once it is cured (cure times will very), you should easily be able to separate the cast (or tooling) from the mold provided you used he mold release properly. To sign up for our monthly newsletters please email us at info@formechinc.com Formech Inc – Forming to Perfection Visit our website at www.formechinc.com

DIY: Creating Molds for Vac Forming

Formech: Forming to Perfection Over the course of doing business we have advised many customers on the specifics of developing custom tooling for their various applications. Here we demonstrate a few commonly used techniques from the do-it-yourself to the utilization of high-end machinery. Easily Create Molds for Vacuum Forming The first step of the vacuum-forming process is to create your mold, also known as ‘tooling’. If you have an easy-to-use, professional grade vac-forming machine then this step is probably going to be the most in depth part of the process. It’s easy, and Formech successfully advises our customers on this initial step quite frequently. There are several ways to create a tool for vacuum-forming, and which one you use will ultimately depend on what you are attempting to achieve, the resources you have to achieve it, and how long or how many runs you will need the tool to last. Here are a few suggestions on common mold types: §  Cast | Plaster, Clay, or Resin: To the right we have an example of a plaster mold utilized by our customers at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. You can actually form right over the plaster, as demonstrated with the mask below, courtesy of our friends at the London College of Fashion.                                                      American Museum of Natural History Workshop   Here we see course leader Caroline Gardiner using a plaster tool to make a foam mask with the Formech FM660.   This ‘Azote’ foam is handy for mask making applications and maintains excellent shape after cooling. NOTE: One thing to definitely keep in mind when using plaster or clay is to periodically remove excess dust before and after forming. Otherwise, debris will build up inside the pump over time. Also, plaster or clay may only last for a few runs but aluminum or mineral resin tools are more permanent. Mineral resin ‘paint tube’ tooling utilized for packaging If necessary, you can always duplicate your brittle molds by forming a part and then using that negative mold to pour a mineral (or some other type of resin) into the cavity. More is explained in our Vacuum-Forming Guide Email us at info@formechinc.com if you’d like a free digital copy. Another method is just to sculpt the tooling out of resin as demonstrated in this video by Mr. Andrew Ainsworth with Shepperton Studios. You may know him a little better as the creator of the original Storm Trooper outfit for Star Wars. Here Mr. Ainsworth walks his audience through exactly how he created the Storm Trooper molds from scratch and then shows how he forms the real-life costumes on his Formech 660 machine. More on creating vac-forming molds with an additive manufacturing machine – click here.  The above 3-D printed tool came courtesy of Stratasys – www.stratasys.com §  3-D prints: Did you know that you can also use your 3D prints as tools for vac-forming? Also, if you print them as ‘sparse fill’ you won’t need to drill any holes for the air to pass through. The ABS plastic will typically hold up for quite a few runs but if you need something more permanent, then you can use the resin trick listed above. Here is a video of the process §  CNC. This is another commonly used method to create tooling. The durability of the mold will depend on the material that you use and can range from foam block all of the way up to aluminum. A really neat material on the market today is called Metapor, and it is a porous aluminum material that can easily be cut with a CNC machine. Its porous qualities make it ideal for vacuum-forming. More on Metapor here Those are some of the main methods of mold-making but there are many more. For instance, you can also form right over an existing object in order to replicate it. Need to make a soft wrench or a hammer for stage or film? Form right over the wrench or the hammer and pour silicon right into the cavity. §  Here’s a good example of how Chef Pilon at the Mandalay Bay utilized a toy starfish to create a chocolate mold: Questions? We have answers so don’t hesitate to get in touch, we are here to help! info@formechinc.com ©2012 Formech Inc | 1 S. Dearborn St. Chicago, IL http://www.facebook.com/formechinc  https://formechinc.wordpress.com/

Formech: A Chocolatiers Path to Innovation

Formech’s 300XQ, 508 and 686 machines are used to create unique and delicate chocolate pieces in the RP department at CSM in Kings Cross London. From the molds that created the chocolates to the packaging designs, the chocolate designers relied on Formech machines to produce every aspect of their works.

Chocolate Bloom by Marine Le Loung

CSM Art and Science Year End Exhibition

The CSM Art and Science year end exhibition called Experiments showcases research from participating artists and investigates the creative relationships between Art and Science. Agnieszka Tamiola is studying at CSM in London. Her work focuses specifically on endangered languages – she investigates audio recordings of the languages from which she identifies intonation patterns and creates a series of abstract patterns – working specifically with plastics formed on Formech’s vfm’s at CSM’s rapid prototyping lab.

The Making of Fiat 500 by Gucci featuring Formech

White Lodge director Chris Sweeney was commissioned by online luxury platform Nowness to conjure up a concept for Gucci’s makeover of the Fiat 500. The resulting film is a mischievous marriage of handbags and head rests with a playful nod to the pure joy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At the heart of the playful short is Formech’s model FP vacuum forming machine, which ingests the high fashion design of Gucci to transform fragrance bottles into exhaust pipes and high heels into alloy rims. Follow this link to see the full “Making of Fiat 500 by Gucci” film:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-JYT7TRWMw