Cold Bending Plastic Sheets

To set up your plastic or acrylic sheet to bend simple curves for your miniature and model projects you need to first remove the protective covering from the material you wish to bend.

Cold bending plastic sheets.

Bend the acrylic slowly and gently to avoid tearing the material on the exterior of the fold. As could be inferred from its name cold curving is the process of bending the whole polycarbonate sheet to create a dome or an arch. Wear gloves as you do this to avoid burning your hands. After bending heat the acrylic on the outside of the fold line briefly to seal it properly.

Spectar supposedly looks and handles much like acrylic but with the surprising property that it can be cold formed without breaking or whitening and exhibits a memory effect holding a cold bend until reheated. Alternatively in case you don t want to cold bend polycarbonate sheet apply heat. It s advisable to proceed with care. To view this site you must enable javascript or upgrade to a javascript capable browser.

Chemically spectar is similar to the pete used to make disposable drink bottles and is commonly abbreviated as petg. When you heat acrylic to 160 degrees celsius it becomes soft and bends easily. Use long thin 1 inch or so in width test strips to practice your technique and learn how your particular heat source affects your chosen thickness of plastic. However cold bending is quicker and more favourable than hot bending.

Depending on the thickness of the material most plastics can be bent in a gradual radius without negatively affecting the integrity of the material. Some materials can even be cold bent using a press brake the same machine used for bending metal. Be sure that the marked line is above the heating element. Tensions arise during bending and the sheet may straighten out.

Plexiglas sheet can be cold formed bent at room temperature in a smooth arc and held to a radius by forcing the material into a curved channel support. Cold bending is further possible with more types of polyester. Hot bending polycarbonate sheet. Javascript is disabled on your browser.

The process of cold bending of plastic sheets is the same as bending metal but since plastic is a vivid material than metal it causes more problems. They place the acrylic sheet over a long thin filament with the bend line positioned precisely above the wire. This takes us to another important fabrication process. Well this is the opposite of the cold bending polycarbonate sheet.

This video is about bending and thermoforming king plastic polymer sheets. Turn the sheet of acrylic over on the heating element every 30 60 seconds in order to avoid damaging it. Cold bending some thermoplastic materials can be cold bent without the need to apply heat. Cold line bending polycarbonate sheet is basically a prelude to fabrication process.