LRM Industries goes commercial with its sheetless thermoforming
ROCKLEDGE, FLA. — LRM Industries LLC made its name in recent years with a process it calls Thermo-Plastic Flow molding, or TPF. The Rockledge-based joint venture of Nova Chemicals Corp. and Envirokare Tech Inc. has won several awards for long-fiber thermoplastic parts molded around metal cores, used to make structures for NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
LRM's latest trademarked process, for Sheetless Thermoforming Technology (SFT), commercializes a line developed in 2007.
The line produces large thermoformed parts on three to five trolleys that move around a circular track, coating molten plastic directly into thermoforming molds. This eliminates the need for preformed sheet, Senior Vice President Jim Callough said in a Nov. 3 telephone interview.
``The trolleys have all the elements necessary for molding onboard — water and vacuums, et cetera,'' he said. The line is custom fabricated, except for the extruder and mixer, which are sourced outside LRM, he said. ``How we handle the sheet, that's the magic — that's where we hold the patent,'' Callough said.
Coating thermoforming molds directly allows the production of deep-draw products with minimum thinning and a wide range of polymers can be used, he said. LRM's primary product using the new technology is storm-water chambers.
SFT parts are limited to 18 feet in length, he said. With three trolleys, the line can form 400-450 parts per day; with five trolleys, that goes up to 650 parts per day, he said.
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