CPB30603- QA & QC in Chemical Engineering

Assignment 1: Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets

(Application of QA & QC in Chemical Engineering) P a g e |1

CPB 30603- QA & QC IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Task: From your field, choose any problem and apply QA & QC (without data and no
formula) and how to deal with this problem.

Assignment 1 :Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets

(Application of QA & QC in Chemical

Engineering)

Lecturer Name : Dr. Abbas F. Mubarek Al-Karkhi

Section : L01-T2

Group Members :

No. Student Name ID Number

1. Shahrol Hamdan bin Halim 55213114244
2. Siti Hajar Mohamed 55213114225
3. Nabilah binti Nordin 55213114016

Week : 12

Date of Delivery : 19-05-2017

CPB30603- QA & QC in Chemical Engineering
Assignment 1: Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets
(Application of QA & QC in Chemical Engineering) P a g e |2

1. Name of Process
Vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets
2. Process Description

Figure 1: Process of vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets

Thermoforming is a manufacturing process where a plastic sheet is heated to a
pliable forming temperature, formed to a specific shape in a mould, and trimmed to
create a usable product. The sheet when referring to thinner gauges and certain
materials types is heated in an oven to a high-enough temperature that it can be
stretched into or onto a mould and cooled to a finished shape.
In its simplest form, a small table top or lab size machine can be used to heat
small cut sections of plastic sheet and stretch it over a mould using vacuum. This
method is often used for sample and prototype parts. In complex and high-volume
applications, very large production machines are utilized to heat and form the plastic
sheet and trim the formed parts from the sheet in a continuous high-speed process,
and can produce many thousands of finished parts per hour depending on the machine
and mould size and the size of the parts being formed.
In the most common method of high-volume, continuous thermoforming of
thin-gauge products, plastic sheet is fed from a roll or from an extruder into a set of
indexing chains that incorporate pins, or spikes, that pierce the sheet and transport it
through an oven for heating to forming temperature. The heated sheet then indexes
into a form station where a mating mould and pressure-box close on the sheet, with
vacuum then applied to remove trapped air and to pull the material into or onto the
mould along with pressurized air to form the plastic to the detailed shape of the
mould.
CPB30603- QA & QC in Chemical Engineering
Assignment 1: Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets
(Application of QA & QC in Chemical Engineering) P a g e |3

After a short form cycle, a burst of reverse air pressure is actuated from the
vacuum side of the mould as the form tooling opens, commonly referred to as air-
eject, to break the vacuum and assist the formed parts off of, or out of, the mould. A
stripper plate may also be utilized on the mould as it opens for ejection of more
detailed parts or those with negative-draft, undercut areas. The sheet containing the
formed parts then indexes into a trim station on the same machine, where a die cuts
the parts from the remaining sheet web, or indexes into a separate trim press where
the formed parts are trimmed. The sheet web remaining after the formed parts are
trimmed is typically wound onto a take-up reel or fed into an inline granulator for
recycling.

3. Parameter Involve
Pressure: vacuum pressure
Temperature

4. Problems Occurred
i. If Process Out of Control
Overpressure: Thermoplastics becomes thinner and fragile (easy to break).
The thermoplastic becomes over cured.
Under pressure: Thermoplastics are not moulded properly and squishy.
The thermoplastics becomes under cured
i. If Process In Control
Optimum pressure: The thermoplastics are cured and follow the shape of
the mould. The production of thermoplastics is met requirements of
products where customers will buy the products (thermoplastics sheets).

5. Types of Control Charts

The control chart that is used is attributes control charts. This is because the
quality characteristics of good quality thermoplastics sheets cannot be conveniently
represented numerically. The quality of thermoplastics sheets is usually classify each
item inspected as either conforming or non-conforming to the specifications on that
quality characteristics as in this vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets , the non-
CPB30603- QA & QC in Chemical Engineering
Assignment 1: Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets
(Application of QA & QC in Chemical Engineering) P a g e |4

conforming is inspected. The defective or non-defective is used to identify these two

classifications of thermoplastics sheets produced. The quality characteristic of this
type of conforming and non-conforming is called attributes.
6. Chart Used and Reasons

The type of chart used in this process is p-chart (control chart for fraction non-
conforming) actually to monitor the consistency of the products quality. The p-chart has three
parameters that must be specified which are sample size, frequency of sampling and width of
control limits. Through the p-chart, it is able to determine the quality of thermoplastic sheets
and to determine fraction of nonconforming or defectives product produced by vacuum
forming process. P-chart used in this process as it is the most applicable to production
situations where;

i. The vacuum forming is not in constant total pressure of production so; the p chart is
more suitable for non-conforming analysis.
ii. P-charts are used to determine if the process is stable and predictable

Medicine pellets are pack in a thermoplastic sheets. These thermoplastics sheets are
formed by vacuum pressing on the mould. By inspection of thermoplastics, we may
determine whether the thermoplastic sheets are moulded properly. Thus, we can acknowledge
when the thermoplastic sheets are under cured or over cured (non-conforming). P chart is set
to improve fractions of non-conforming thermoplastics sheets produced by this machine.
Based on the process of vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets, the details of process are
as below:

Samples size, n 50 samples

Number of sample, m 30 samples
Time interval of samples 15 minutes
7. Method to Control
i. If process is out of control:
First, the process must be stopped, assignable causes of the process is
searched, corrective action is done (the machine is reset, do troubleshoot and
quality of samples is checked where random samples will be picked from
sample storage, control chart is used to check which number of sample are
CPB30603- QA & QC in Chemical Engineering
Assignment 1: Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets
(Application of QA & QC in Chemical Engineering) P a g e |5

defects). Then, the process is restarted. The new chart is calculated where the
control chart is revised (exceeded value is eliminated and then, data is used for
calculation of new chart).
In addition, in terms of plant utilities and maintenance, pressure alarm
and sensor can be placed to detect any over pressure or under pressure of the
machine. If the pressure falls above or below the desired value, the sensor will
be triggered. Thus, the alarm will appear on the panel screen. So that the
operator can monitor and set the pressure back to its desired value.