Mold design and fabrication for production of thermoformed paper-based packaging products

Paper-based packaging products are a cheap and sustainable alternative to their plastic counterparts. The manufacturing process of paper molding is a relatively newer concept, and the tooling aspect remains somewhat unknown. The work done in this paper establishes a tool design approach for the molding of paper products. These products are also sometime referred to as the molded paper products (MPP). Functional requirements are identified and translated to process chains. The concept of non-deterministic and deterministic tooling is introduced. Tooling process chains based on micro-metal additive manufacturing are defined and implemented. The process chain is utilized to manufacture micro features of size 300 μm in a high aspect ratio. A comparative study on validation of tooling process chains is also discussed, and the suitability of rapid tooling over sintered tools is highlighted in this work.