Laser Mapping Pod – Vacuum Formed Components

Laser Mapping Pod uses vacuum formed parts to compliment white gel coat GRP construction produced by APH. Within these domes intricate vacuum formings were made using resin tooling board. This material was chosen for vac. tools because of it low cost, but high yield in volume of mouldings. The parts were developed as hand models, to be able to make patterns in resin tooling board, that became the vacuum tooling.

These were mounted onto 18mm MDF boards, that were sized to fit the frame size of vacuum form machine, to complete the tooling venting holes were drilled through the mounting board and into pocketed features to ensure that vacuum pulled important features down over tool when forming. The parts when cooled and blown from tool, were trimmed to remove excess material and hand finished to give a fine mating surface.