Machine shop

One area that is a critical component in thermoforming is tooling. We’ve invested heavily in our machine shop, in both equipment and personnel in an effort to achieve complete control over each project. Our engineers on staff design and produce custom thermoform tooling, utilizing a variety of different design software packages, but our primary design and presentation software is Solidworks, the world leader in 3D design. Surfcam is our primary CAM software, which converts design files into data files for CNC machining centers to read.

VPPE offers multiple vertical CNC machining centers with an operating envelope of up to 32” x 64”, providing greater flexibility in tooling design.  
All VMCs are connected to our main network, facilitating file transfers and machine operation. These machines are in use 24 hours a day, to better deal with the short lead times typical in the industry today.

In order to shorten design development lead time, we utilize both contact digitizers and laser digitizers.