Thermoforming.co

After its meeting in Poznan, Poland, a jury for the 2006 WorldStar packaging awards selected by the World Packaging Organization (WPO [www.worldpackaging.org]) generated six nominees for the 2006 President's Award, including a single U.S. entry in the pharmaceutical/medical category. The awards selection is based on the inventiveness, creativity and functionality of a package. Big biotech products manufacturer Amgen Inc.,

At a meeting today of the United States Pharmacopeia’s (USP) Nomenclature Expert Committee,...

The Consortium for the Advancement of Patient Safety (CAPS) was recently ...

Blister pack is a term for several types of pre-formed plastic packaging used for small consumer goods. The two primary components of a blister pack are the cavity or pocket made from a "formable" web, either plastic or aluminium - and the lidding, made from paper, carton, plastic or aluminium. The "formed" cavity or pocket contains the product and the "lidding" seals the product in the package. Other types of blister packs consist of carded packaging where goods such as toys, hardware, and electrical items are contained between a specially made paperboard card and clear pre-formed plastic such as PVC.

The consumer can easily examine the product through the transparent plastic. The plastic shell is vacuum-formed around a mold so it can contain the item snugly. The card is brightly colored and designed depending on the item inside, and the PVC is affixed to the card using heat and pressure to activate an adhesive (heat seal coating) on the blister card. The adhesive is strong enough so that the pack may hang on a peg, but weak enough so so that the package can be easily opened. Sometimes, with large items, the card has a perforated window for access. A more secure package is known as a clamshell. It is often used to deter package pilferage for small high-value items, such as consumer electronics. It consists of either two pre-formed plastic sheets or one sheet folded over onto itself and fused at the edges. They are usually designed to be difficult to open by hand so as to deter tampering. A pair of scissors or a sharp knife is often required to open them (although often coming in the same package). Care must be used to safely open some of these packages, as 6,000 Americans are sent to the emergency room each year by opening them.[1][2] Wrap rage is sometimes the result.

Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use. Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells. In many countries it is fully integrated into government, business, institutional, industrial, and personal use.

Package labelling (en-GB) or labeling (en-US) is any written, electronic, or graphic communications on the packaging or on a separate but associated label.

Vacuum forming, commonly known as vacuforming, is a simplified version of thermoforming, whereby a sheet of plastic is heated to a forming temperature, stretched onto or into a single-surface mold, and held against the mold by applying vacuum between the mold surface and the sheet. The vacuum forming process can be used to make most product packaging, speaker casings and even car dashboards. Normally, draft angles must be present in the design on the mold (a recommended minimum of 3°), otherwise release of the formed plastic and the mold is very difficult.

Vacuum forming is usually – but not always – restricted to forming plastic parts that are rather shallow in depth. A thin sheet is formed into rigid cavities for unit doses of pharmaceuticals and for loose objects that are carded or presented as point-of-purchase items. Thick sheet is formed into permanent objects such as turnpike signs and protective covers.

Relatively deep parts can be formed if the form-able sheet is mechanically or pneumatically stretched prior to bringing it in contact with the mold surface and before vacuum is applied.[1] Suitable materials for use in vacuum forming are conventionally thermoplastics, the most common and easiest being High Impact Polystyrene Sheeting (HIPS). This is molded around a wood, structural foam or cast/machined aluminum mold and can form to almost any shape. Vacuum forming is also appropriate for transparent materials such as acrylic which are widely used in applications for aerospace such as passenger cabin window canopies for military fixed wing aircraft and "bubbles" for rotary wing aircraft.