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.
Cold forming plastic sheet.
Our tanks are formed from sheet stock typically 0 25 in.
I am forming plastic not metal but i am applying metal bending principles to my application after a few years of iteration we have developed an accurate flat pattern method for our tank bending operations.
This article uses a sheet about 1 4 thick so all times are about 10 to 15 minutes per step.
For thicker sheets it will take longer and for thinner sheets it will take less time.
Thick thinned in the bent areas along the circumference and wrapped into a rectangle with radiused corners.
Uk educational supply center centre mindsets online sells variously sized 3mm thick sample sheets of eastman s spectar copolyester at not completely outlandish prices.
Sheet too cold inadequate vacuum heat sheet for longer time period check vacuum system for leakage increase vacuum.
Uneven heating check heaters screen hot areas.
Modify the timing as necessary.
The recommended radius of curvature should be a value greater than 180 times the thickness of the sheet for plexiglas g sheet and 300 times the thickness for plexiglas mc sheet see table below.
Sheet too hot.
Incomplete part formation detail.
Sheet too cold to form heat sheet for longer time period.