PCI now has added capacity on a single part that measures in feet, not inches, with PCI's largest forming envelope reaching 6.2 by 10.5 feet. That added capacity comes from the new single-station machine PCI has brought online, and it changes the calculation for any engineer who has been splitting a large cover, enclosure, or panel into multiple pieces because the old platen ran out of room.
The added capacity lands alongside a milestone: the equipment is the first Machinecraft thermoforming machine installed in the United States, per Machinecraft's own announcement. Here is what the larger envelope, the faster cycle, and the deeper draw mean for your part.
PCI's largest forming envelope reaches 6.2 by 10.5 feet, enough to form a full-length cover, enclosure, or panel as a single part. For a part designer, that added capacity is the difference between forming a large part in one shot and gluing or fastening two formed halves together.
Sheet size sets the outer boundary of what a single-station former can produce. Once a part footprint crosses the platen limit, the options narrow fast: tool it as two parts and join them, redesign around the constraint, or move the whole job to fabricated metal. Added forming capacity removes that fork for a wide band of parts that used to sit just outside reach. PCI has run heavy-gauge thermoforming since 1972, and the expanded envelope extends the same in-house design and tooling process to larger single-piece geometries than the shop could form before.
Added capacity lets you consolidate parts, and part consolidation is where thermoforming pays off against metal and multi-panel assemblies. Every seam you remove is a joint you no longer fixture, fasten, seal, or inspect. Fewer pieces means fewer part numbers in the bill of materials and fewer failure points in the field.
Consider a large equipment guard or shroud that currently ships as two or three formed sections bolted to a frame. That split was often a manufacturing reality, not a design choice, because the part footprint ran past the platen. With more forming capacity, the same geometry can often form as one piece. The seam goes away, the assembly labor goes away, and the surface reads as a single continuous part. This is the same consolidation logic behind PCI's belt guard case study, where a 718 pound steel assembly became a 38 pound thermoformed part, a 95 percent weight reduction. A larger envelope widens the set of parts that can make that jump.
Designers working in transportation, heavy equipment, and medical enclosures tend to feel platen limits first, because those parts are big, contoured, and often want to be one continuous surface for cleaning, airflow, or appearance. A larger forming area gives that work more room before a part has to be broken up.
No. The new machine forms more parts per hour and draws less energy doing it, so the added capacity does not come at the expense of throughput or unit economics. That combination matters, because the usual assumption is that going bigger means going slower.
More advanced heating and forming controls are what make that possible. Tighter control over sheet temperature and forming motion shortens cycle time and improves repeatability from part to part, which is exactly what a project manager wants to see before committing a production run. Lower energy draw per cycle also works in your favor on total cost of ownership, since energy is a recurring line item that scales with volume, not a one-time tooling charge.
Thermoforming already holds a structural cost advantage on tooling. Aluminum thermoforming tools typically run at roughly 10 to 15 percent of the cost of an injection mold for an equivalent part size, and prototype tooling can turn in 15 to 20 working days rather than the months an injection program often takes. A faster, more efficient machine layered on top of that tooling economics keeps larger parts competitive at moderate volumes, right where injection molding usually cannot justify its tooling spend.
Greater depth of draw means the machine can form taller, deeper parts from the same sheet, so geometries like deep enclosures, tall covers, and boxed structural sections come into range. Depth of draw is the vertical dimension of thermoforming: how far the material can be drawn down into or up over the tool before it thins past the point of usefulness.
Draw depth is often the quiet constraint that pushes a part toward fabrication. A cover that is wide and shallow is easy. A cover that has to wrap deep around a chassis, house a full assembly, or stand tall enough to enclose a motor asks more of the process. The new machine's added draw capacity, paired with the larger footprint, opens up parts that are both large in plan and deep in section, the kind of one-piece protective housing that previously had to be welded up from sheet metal or laid up in fiberglass.
For engineers evaluating whether plastic can replace metal here, depth of draw is where the honest answer used to be "not at that size." The envelope has moved. The material still has to be validated for the load case, and PCI qualifies material and wall thickness against the application rather than assuming the substitution works, but more geometries now clear the first hurdle of simply being formable.
It means added domestic thermoforming capacity for large, deep parts at a moment when supply chain certainty and tariff exposure are real line items in sourcing decisions. PCI is the first shop in the United States to run a Machinecraft thermoforming machine, according to the manufacturer's announcement of the installation, and the expanded capacity is domestic.
That matters beyond the specification sheet. Buyers weighing offshore plastic parts against domestic sourcing are now factoring in tariff movement, including the 15 percent tariff on Korean ABS imports that has shifted the economics toward forming parts in the U.S. Larger single-piece parts produced on domestic equipment shorten the supply chain and reduce the number of variables between a purchase order and a delivered part. For a procurement team, expanded domestic capacity for parts that used to require metal fabrication or overseas tooling is the part of this announcement worth circling.
If you have a part that has been stuck at the edge of your current supplier's forming envelope, or a metal weldment you have wanted to consolidate and lighten, the added capacity and deeper draw are worth a conversation. PCI reviews part geometry and material against the application and will tell you where thermoforming fits and where it does not. Send the drawing and ask for a material and process consultation.
PCI's maximum forming size is 6.2 by 10.5 feet. The added capacity on the new single-station machine allows larger single-piece parts without splitting them into sections.
For large parts at low to moderate volumes, usually yes. Thermoforming tooling runs at roughly 10 to 15 percent of the cost of an injection mold for an equivalent part size, and prototype tooling can be ready in 15 to 20 working days. Injection molding generally wins only at high volumes where its tooling cost amortizes across many parts.
Often, yes, though it depends on the load case. Added forming capacity and greater depth of draw bring more large metal weldments into range for conversion, and consolidation into one piece removes seams and weight. PCI's belt guard project cut a 718 pound steel assembly to a 38 pound thermoformed part, a 95 percent weight reduction. Every substitution still gets validated on material and wall thickness against the specific application.
Depth of draw sets how deep or tall a part can be formed from a sheet before the material thins too much. It is often the constraint that decides whether a deep enclosure or tall cover can be thermoformed at all, so a machine with more draw capacity expands the range of parts that qualify for the process.
PCI is the first company in the U.S. to install a Machinecraft thermoforming machine, per Machinecraft's announcement. For buyers, the practical takeaway is added domestic capacity for large, deep thermoformed parts, which shortens the supply chain and reduces tariff exposure compared with offshore sourcing.