But before you jump in and make a purchase, our team at Complete Packaging Solutions is here to help you review a few design considerations.

Thermoformed Packaging Defined

Thermoforming involves using suction vacuuming, high heat, and high pressure to form three-dimensional shapes out of plastic sheets that have been placed into a rigid mold, then cut and assembled into packaging. 

Related Post: Thermoforming Explained (Everything You Need to Know)

Types of Thermoforming

There are two types of thermoforming packaging: vacuum and heat-pressure thermoforming. 

Vacuum Thermoform Packaging

Vacuum-forming plastic packaging is a cheaper and more streamlined option. Since you can’t produce that many packages, it’s ideal for short runs. 

Plug-assisted forming is when a plug tool is put on the thermoforming machine to force the plastic-heated material into the female cavity. 

The plug is made of urethane, aluminum, or syntactic foam. It ensures a consistent fill with the same thickness ratio for each run. It also helps to prevent webbing in the package.

Plug-assisted pressure forming is very similar, yet slightly different. Air vented underneath the plastic sheet puts pressure on the plug, blowing the molten plastic into a bubble. 

The design won’t come out right if a consistent temperature isn’t held during the pressure-forming process.

Considerations Before Buying Thermoform Packaging

1. Quality Custom Design

The first step to creating great thermoform packaging is good design. 

Talk to your packaging team about your product’s needs, your brand message, and your budget boundaries for materials. 

During the consultation process, you’ll be able to narrow down precisely what kind of materials, tooling, machinery, and color scheme you need. 

Does your product require special handling or materials to prevent moisture from getting through or to create additional insulation from temperature fluctuations? 

The design team can help you identify suitable materials to use for your product. 

Related Post: 5 Ways Thermoformed Electronics Packaging Boosts Revenue

2. Choose Packaging Materials 

Your packaging company will select the appropriate plastic for your product. 

• Most companies use PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol). 
• PET is often thinner and used for plastic water bottles. 
• PETG is used for durable, thicker packaging, like blister packs for the pharmaceutical industry. 

3. Manufacturing Process 

This is the phase in which you’ll determine how your package will be constructed. What tools and processes will be used? 

Typically, a turnkey packaging company will produce it all in-house, ultimately saving you money. 

Thermoforming is famed for price-worthy tooling and low production costs, regardless of whether a company does it all themselves or outsources to another manufacturer. 

4. Clean Production Environment 

If you’re thermoforming products for the medical industry (and even the food industry), you’ll need to be sure that your packaging company is operating in a clean environment. 

The best packaging facilities have an ISO class 8 cleanroom environment, with HEPA filtration and a positive pressure HVAC system. 

5. Market Runtime 

Designs need to be turned out quickly in order to prototype the material, perform a final test, and start creating order runs. A thorough prototyping process involving machine learning technologies reduces your production lead times. 

There has to be enough time during the design and prototype phase to adjust for material shape, size, or coverage. 

Thermoforming allows for precise and customizable changes to be made in an agile way. 

6. Ergonomic Material Application

Before your package launches into the hands of customers, a final prototype is made, printed out to be held and reviewed in great detail for defects or drawbacks. 

A good packaging company will collaborate with you during this process. After reviewing it, they might find a more profitable use for your packaging material. 

For instance, removing great-looking but unnecessary inserts or narrowing the edges of the plastic package to fit the product better saves space, decreases weight, and lowers the overall cost of shipping. 

Order Specialty Thermoformed Packaging from CPS

We offer customized, turnkey packaging solutions for mid and small-sized businesses looking to get their products to market faster. Request a free consultation today: 530-586-0368

The post Top Considerations for Thermoformed Packaging appeared first on Complete Packaging Solutions.

Read our answers to some FAQs about thermoforming and thermoformed packaging.

What is thermoforming?

Thermoforming represents a process by which a machine heats a thermoplastic sheet to its softening point before stretching it across a mold to manipulate it into the desired shape before it cools and hardens.

Why do packages need thermoforming?

If your packaging needs a custom shape to fit snugly against products, thermoforming offers a great choice. 

Thermoformed plastic is also sturdy in that it protects products against nicks and dings during transport.

What products need thermoformed packaging?

• Unit dose products, such as medications and drugs.
• Material handling trays that have several items in the same section.
• Gift packs to keep individual items separate.
• Clamshell packaging for food as well as health and beauty products.
• Products that need custom-fit packaging.
• Trays for nurseries for small plants and seedlings.
• Kits with several parts.
• CPG being sold in club stores, like club packaging.

What is the basic process of thermoforming?

Vacuum forming combines heat and pressure to draw the thermoplastic sheets into the final configuration before it cools. The sheet is placed over a mold, and the vacuumed air moves it into the shape we need.

Pressure forming uses vacuum air along with additional pressure to form more detailed shapes in your packaging.

What is the complete thermoformed packaging process from start to finish?

1. Conversation
2. Design
3. Material Selection
4. Tooling
5. Prototyping
6. Thermoforming
7. Trimming and Die-Cutting
8. Shipping

Conversation is the start of this process. Your chosen packaging solutions company should have detailed conversations with you, including asking questions about your requirements and standards while giving you recommendations on the material and color options and a timeframe for completion.

Design requires input from all sides. Most companies use CAD, or computer-aided design, to create a prototype from precise measurements.

Material selection is an important step. In general, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the plastic of choice for thermoforming. This material is rigid and recyclable. PET also comes in many thicknesses and can be colored any way you want, including transparent.

Prototyping creates a physical copy. Before we mass-produce your packaging, we ensure all measurements meet your specifications. This is probably the most important step aside from the CAD process.

Tooling helps your packaging take shape. This part of the process is when your packaging solutions company turns a design into a mold over which the thermoformed packaging will stretch.

Let the thermoforming begin! Once we verify the prototype fits perfectly, we begin mass production of your thermoformed packaging.

Trimming and die-cutting each piece. Remember, your packages start as a sheet of plastic. Once the sheet receives its shape and cools, we trim the sheets so they fit into boxes for shipping. 

Shipping to your place. The final step is that we ship the packaging to your place so you can fit them around your products. We can ship items for you as part of our kitting and fulfillment service. 

What plastic materials can go into thermoformed packaging?

1. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most common choice for a wide range of industries.
2. High-impact polystyrene (HIPS) for very pliable food packaging. 
3. Acrylonitrile styrene butadiene (ABS) is a very rigid, sturdy plastic with great resistance to impacts, chemicals, and UV light.

What are thermoformed trays?

This type of plastic packaging minimizes movement of components. Thermoformed trays come in handy for medical components, kits, gift packs, food, parts that require assembly (like for the automotive industry), and packaging large quantities of individual items in the same box.

Thermoformed trays, when combined with the right sealing technique (like heat sealing and RF sealing), keep items safe and secure during shipping and handling to keep them intact and in place. This is particularly important when you want to showcase some or all of the products in clear packaging so customers can see your products clearly before choosing to purchase them. 

For example, you sell a meal-kit that has several different components that people can assemble at home. The meal kit includes several colorful fruits and vegetables to make a salad. It’s important to keep the ingredients separate until assembly to prevent spoilage while giving your products a better chance of staying fresh during refrigeration.

What is thermoformed food packaging?

This type of packaging keeps your food fresher by offering sturdiness and sealing your products inside the package. Thermoformed food packaging comes down the line horizontally, then your machines put food inside, and then the seal comes down on top of it to keep foods safe inside.

When you use this type of packaging for foods, you have the potential to reduce damage during shipping while increasing shelf life. This is particularly true for perishable foods that require refrigeration or special handling requirements.

Think clamshells and clear plastic packaging that protects food while maintaining visibility.

What are the benefits of thermoformed packaging?

When you choose thermoformed packaging for your products, you realize several benefits, including:

1. Protecting your products. This type of packaging is durable for protection during shipping and logistics. Numerous sealing options, including clamshell and heat sealing, can extend shelf life while resisting tampering.

2. Cost-effectiveness. This kind of packaging can save you up to 15% on costs compared to injection molding techniques.

3. Sustainability. PET is recyclable, and consumers are becoming more and more conscious of products that are better for the environment.

4. Design options. Thermoformed packaging provides companies with endless creative options for CPG products on the shelf. You have colors, labels, and branding that make products stand out from others.

Related Post: Top Considerations for Thermoformed Packaging

Why should a manufacturer invest in thermoformed packaging?

Your company has several reasons to invest in this type of packaging. 

1. Low tooling costs compared to injection molding. Thermoforming requires less annual volume, as well. 
2. Better efficiency due to a production-line format that maintains a continuous feed from start to finish.
3. High speed for just-in-time (JIT) production when you need packaging fast to reduce storage costs and improve time to market.
4. Easier to customize through computer-aided design.
5. Weight-related savings versus other packaging styles to save on shipping costs.
6. Readily available materials to reduce supply chain disruptions.
7. Customizable to adapt to the needs of several products or production runs.
8. Extensive choices for shapes, sizes, and even textures.

Who do I contact for thermoformed packaging solutions?

Complete Packaging Solutions has decades of experience in the packaging industry. We’ve worked with national brands such as L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Hasbro, and Hitachi, some of which required thermoformed packaging for their products. 

Reach out to us or call 765-547-1300 to talk about our full-service thermoformed packaging to take your products and efficiency to new levels.

The post Thermoformed Packaging FAQs appeared first on Complete Packaging Solutions.

In today’s blog from Complete Packaging Solutions, we talk about products that require thermoformed packages for best possible results.

Custom Fits

When your products need a custom fit, thermoforming is for you. Think of oblong or unusual parts, larger parts, or items that may not fit into ordinary packaging. Our team has the experience and knowledge to create a digital mockup of a packaging solution before we go to prototyping and production to ensure an ideal fit.

Thermoforming packages for products is a highly customizable process, from start to finish, from the sketched creative design, down to the melting and forming process.

Electronics Packaging

Electronics come with many parts, including the main component, console, screen, or control panel. Then you have wires, batteries, remote controls, and wires. Thermoforming protects the electronic components by keeping them snug and secure, whether you produce smartphones or computer monitors.

Material Handling Trays

Material handling trays have several items in each section. Thermoforming does several things for these items. It keeps them separate when you have raw materials that need to stay separate until you need to combine them. Thermoforming then seals each compartment to prevent materials from spilling out. Think about paints, dyes, powders, small parts, nuts and bolts, and more for this application.

Gift Packs

Holidays are always a time to celebrate. Does your company compile gift packs for any occasion? Thermoforming allows you to keep sections of the gift pack separate. The see-through advantage of this type of packaging lets your customers see precisely what comprises the gift pack.

Complete Packaging Solutions: Your Thermoforming Source

We’ve been in business a long time, and we have the expertise to make just about any thermoformed plastic packaging for your products. If you’re interested in creating packaging for your product, or thermoforming your everyday use items, contact Complete Packaging Solutions today or call 530-586-0368 for more information. 

The post Does My Product Need Thermoforming? appeared first on Complete Packaging Solutions.

Whether you manufacture car parts, home improvement items, cosmetics, or food products, thermoforms can make your products more secure on store shelves while standing out from the competition.

In today’s blog from Complete Packaging Solutions, we discuss how thermoforming works.

A Conversation

Complete Packaging Solutions begins the thermoforming process by talking to your team. We listen to your requirements and specifications. We’ll also talk about what options you have for materials and the possible timeframes for the rest of the process.

Design

Then we continue the thermoforming process with CAD, or computer-aided design. We take your specifics, input them into our CAD software, and get the measurements precisely as we need.

Material

Once we come up with a design, we help you select the right materials for your packaging. For the majority of cases involving plastic thermoforming, the most common type of plastic is polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

It’s rigid, recyclable, comes in many thicknesses, and can be colored any way you want, including transparent.

Prototyping

Before mass production, we go through a prototyping process to ensure a precise fit. Aside from CAD, prototyping is probably the most crucial step in thermoforming because it affects the entire process.

We then test the prototypes with your products to make sure they fit perfectly.

Tooling

Tooling refers to creating a physical mold that forms your packaging during the manufacturing process. Thermoformed plastic is heated to just the right temperature, and the mold creates every nook and cranny for your packaging. 

Thermoforming 

Now the actual thermoforming process begins. We take rolls of plastic, heat them to the correct temperature, and form them around the molds we made earlier. Then our machine cools the plastic, removes it from the mold, and the packaging cools at room temperature. 

Trimming & Die-Cutting

Once the thermoformed pieces reach the end of the production line, we trim them precisely. Then we package them in a box before shipping them to your facility. Your products should arrive on time so you can fulfill orders for your customers.

Complete Packaging Solutions: Your Trusted Source for Custom Packaging

We’ve been in business a long time, and we have the expertise to make just about any thermoformed plastic packaging for your products. Contact Complete Packaging Solutions today or call 530-586-0368 for more information.

The post Thermoforming Explained (Everything You Need to Know) appeared first on Complete Packaging Solutions.