A forming apparatus for forming objects by forming a sheet of thermoformable material includes a thermal conditioning station including a kiln for heating the material to an operating temperature, and a heating station positioned downstream of the thermal conditioning station and including a heating device to heat set portions of the material to a temperature near a softening temperature of the material. In order to reduce reject material at the restart of the apparatus following machine downtime, the kiln and the heating device are positioned near one another in such a manner that a part of the material interposed between the thermal conditioning station and the heating station is heated by the heat generated by a kiln and/or by the heating device.

A thermoforming device (1) is provided for performing a heating process of radiationally heating a resin film (4) to a predetermined temperature (C21) by a radiation heater (6) and a bonding process of bonding the radiationally heated resin film (4) to a pulp mold (10) set on a base (52). The thermoforming device (1) is provided with a vacuum pump (7) to evacuate a space between the pulp mold (10) and the resin film (4) to bring the resin film (4) to be in close contact with the pulp mold (10) in the bonding process. The radiation heater (6) is changeable in its distance to the resin film (4) between a first heating position to perform radiation heating of the resin film (4) in the heating process and a second heating position to perform radiation heating of the resin film (4) in the bonding process.

Described are methods of two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally forming an article of wear using vacuum forming in an automated process. In the two-dimensional method, the article of wear comprises a generally flat shape with three-dimensional features molded into the first material layer.

A shaping method and a shaping device are provided which can easily and inexpensively form a curved face in a film including a micropattern. A shaping method is for forming, in a predetermined shaping-target area of a film including a patterned face with a micropattern, and a rear face opposite to the patterned face, a curved face beyond the thickness of the film, and includes a fixing step for fixing an outer edge of the shaping-target area of the film by fixing means, a first heating step for heating the film 20 by heating means 95, and a pressure adjusting step for producing a predetermined pressure difference between both faces of the film by the pressurizing means in such a way that pressure at a side where the film is fixed in the fixing step becomes small to form a pre-curved face.

The invention proposes a device for manufacture of a composite piece, which exhibits a shaped plate and at least one plastic functional piece molded on to the shaped plate. The device has a heater for heating a plate blank; a shaping tool with at least two shaping elements and for admitting and shaping of the plate blank, to bring the plate blank into a desired shape and thus to manufacture the shaped plate; means for insertion of a shaped mass into the shaping tool for molding the plastic functional piece onto the shaped plate in the shaping tool to manufacture the composite piece, wherein the shaping tool is so configured that after the shaping of the plate blank, at least one cavity remains, in which the plastic functional piece is shaped; and a closing unit for opening and closing the shaping tool; wherein the heater is integrated into the closing unit and the closing unit is furnished to open and close the heater.

The present invention is directed to a system for thermoforming a batch of dental appliances simultaneously. An embodiment of the invention includes a vacuum plate having an upper surface and a plurality of cups for receiving dental models. A polymer sheet extends over the upper surface of the vacuum plate and over the cups. A heater cap that is movable in proximity to the cups is provided to heat the polymer sheet to be formed onto the dental models. The vacuum plate is configured to create a vacuum seal between an upper edge of the cups and the polymer sheet. A vacuum source is provided to apply a vacuum to the cups below the polymer sheet wherein the pressure contained in said cups is lower than atmospheric pressure whereby at least a portion of the polymer sheet is drawn into each of the cups and drawn over the dental models to form an aligner over each of the dental models. The invention includes the process of drawing a vacuum in a series of steps, or phases, to the cups below the polymer sheet to form the polymer effectively around the dental model.

An arrangement for consolidating thermoplastic semi-finished products, comprising a heating station for heating a semi-finished product, a tempering station for tempering, in particular cooling, the semi-finished product, at least one mold which can be arranged in the heating station and in the tempering station and which comprises a cavity for receiving the semi-finished product, wherein the cavity substantially corresponds to a form of the semi-finished product, and
a mold transport device with which the at least one mold is transportable from the heating station into the tempering station and from the tempering station into the heating station.

An apparatus for supporting heating elements of a thermoformer oven includes a first heating element support frame, a second heating element support frame, and one or more actuator. The first heating element support frame is operable to support one or more of the heating elements on a first side of a surface for supporting material to be thermoformed. The second heating element support frame is operable to support one or more of the heating elements on the first side of the surface. The one or more actuator is configured to shift the first and second heating element support frames toward one another in directions with vector components of motion parallel to the surface.

A material processing method and a molding machine therefor are described. The molding machine comprises a pressing module, a heating module, and an air supplying module. The method comprises: placing material to be processed within a material molding space of the molding machine, and supplying air to an air passage provided in the material by the air supplying module; heating the material by the heating module according to a preset heating parameter; and pressing the material by the pressing module according to a preset pressing parameter.

A thermoforming device performs a heating process of radiationally heating a resin film to a predetermined temperature by a radiation heater and a bonding process of bonding the radiationally heated resin film to a pulp mold set on a base. The thermoforming device includes a vacuum pump to evacuate a space between the pulp mold and the resin film to bring the resin film to be in close contact with the pulp mold in the bonding process. The radiation heater is changeable in its distance to the resin film between a first heating position to perform radiation heating of the resin film in the heating process and a second heating position to perform radiation heating of the resin film in the bonding process.