Getting the Right Reading on Thermoforming

THE CHALLENGE

Our customer is an innovative sheet metal design and fabrication company that uses a groundbreaking process to manufacture aluminum hoods for high-end electric vehicles. It uses both aluminum and magnesium when thermoforming and attracted the likes of a popular electric car manufacturer, who contracted our customer to manufacture their hoods.

With high-end clients comes high-end responsibilities, and many of the electric vehicle hoods our customer manufactures come with rigorous guidelines. One such requirement is the reaching and maintaining of specific temperatures throughout the thermoforming process.

Thermoforming Sheet Metal.
Thermoforming Sheet Metal.

THE NEED

This particular customer had been using an older, contact-based method of measuring temperature, which had grown inconsistent and hindered their output capabilities. They needed a new contactless infrared scanner to provide accurate and seamless thermal readouts in a fraction of the time.

THE WAJAX SOLUTION

Our client knew we have a long-standing relationship with AMETEK Land, a global leader in analytical equipment, so they came to us for help. This was no easy task. The temperature gauge had to be explicitly attuned to the complex sheet metal forming our customer was doing. There was no margin for error.

So, we scheduled several meetings with AMETEK Land Lab specialists in Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. to fully understand the process and products of sheet metal molding. We also had our customer send us some samples of their materials to determine their emissivity and find the infrared scanner that fit its specific needs.

After all of our studies, we found the LSP-HD linescanner to be the best fit for the job. A highly accurate infrared scanner, the LSP-HD can detect the slightest temperature variations and has a scan speed of 150 Hz. The LSP-HD also comes with the new LANDSCAN WCA software, granting live thermal imaging data streams, and logs all readings in a database.

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THE OUTCOME

The LSP-HD infrared linescanner was the innovative solution our client was looking for. They now had access to continuous and accurate thermal readings, which made maintaining temperature so much easier. With a faster scan speed, our customer could increase its output capacity and take on larger orders. While the LANDSCAN WCA software was a new inclusion to the process, our time spent with the AMETEK Land specialists made us so well-versed we were able to train their staff. Now they had complete access to temperature logs and could create temperature profiles for specific units or lots, making adjustments where necessary.

Temperature is an incredibly crucial component of custom sheet metal fabrication. With the LSP-HD from AMETEK Land, any doubts they may have had with their old system were gone, and they could confidently meet any requirement their current electric car manufacturer customer — or any other high-end client — may have.

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