plastic cover material 2

[fade2blue]

Hello,
Currently I am designing a plastic cover. It will be mounted on a truck and will be exposed to the environment and possibly hydraulic fluid. the overall volume the part must cover is 2 by 3 by 1 feet. It will be mounted around a pivoting joint at the end or a boom. Its primary requirement is to minimize shock hazards and it needs to be reasonably durable. Part quantity will be around 500/yr. Im considering using a 2 piece cover (parting line to give minimum part depth) using vacuum forming with cutouts for the moving components. The materials I am looking at are ABS and HDPE. Are there any guidelines for determining minimum radius, and maximum draw depth considering sheet thickness and material chosen for this process. I havent designed any plastic parts before so i may be way off in selecting thermoforming. Thanks for reading

 

[Pud]

Thermoforming way to go.

Please do it the easy way and talk to a thermoformer. They might even do the design stuff for you.

Materials sound ok, but stress cracking with HDPE and oils may be an issue.

Cheers

H

 

[patprimmer]

If it needs long term durability outdoors, you will need UV stabilised grades.

Rotational moulding or vacuum forming are the two possible processes at those volumes.

If rotationally moulded, you do two together then split them apart after moulding.



Regards

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