The art of thermoforming at Plastique Art

Pascal Baillargeon on the shop floor. Photo Credit: Plastique Art

Heavy-gauge thermoforming occupies a unique niche in the plastics industry for sure, but even its biggest proponents would probably admit that, while the global thermoforming plastic market itself has shown significant growth, most of the market volume is dominated by the packaging segment using the thin-gauge, roll-fed thermoforming process. The heavy-gauge sector can seem a bit static in some respects, with the same companies operating year in, year out, with almost no new startups.

Which is why it’s big news that Quebec-based thermoformer Plastique Art is making a big investment designed to take it to the next level of competitiveness.

A third-generation family business headquartered in Sainte-Claire, about 70 kilometers southeast of Quebec City, Plastique Art makes custom thermoformed parts for industries such as transportation, boating, agriculture, recreational vehicles, construction, and industrial equipment; and also offers production tooling and design support for thermoformed parts. And it’s now making a 3-phase, $3-million investment to increase its production capacity and support its long-term growth. First, the project calls for a 4,200-square-foot expansion, which will bring the plant’s total surface area to 30,000 square feet. Second, the investment will allow for the acquisition of a new thermoforming machine and a 5-axis CNC machining centre, enabling the company to double its production capacity for large parts. Third, and related to that, the firm wants to increase production capacity by approximately 70 per cent.

The project is supported by the Government of Quebec, Investissement Quebec, and the Government of Canada, through Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), with CED having awarded Plastique Art a repayable financial contribution of $375,000 under its Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program.

“The project represents a crucial step for us, laying the foundations to support an ambitious goal of doubling revenues again,” company president and CEO Pascal Baillargeon said. “We’re convinced that these investments will help us maintain our leadership in thermoforming in Quebec, and also take us beyond.”

BUILDING A BUSINESS

Plastique Art was founded in 1956 by Baillargeon’s great-uncle, and was taken over shortly thereafter by Baillargeon’s father. “It was mainly my father who built the business,” Baillargeon said. “We worked with acrylics in the early days, making signs for businesses and for taxis, and also making plastic toothbrushes – we were among the first to do this, using injection molded handles made by IPL Inc. in Quebec and adding the bristles to them.” Which marked the beginning of a longstanding business relationship. “We’ve been involved with IPL for decades – my father did some part prototypes for IPL too, such as Coca-Cola cases: he glued together trimmed thermoformed sheets, and IPL would use these as the basis for part designs. Projects like these were the inspiration for our company name: turning thermoforming into an art that demands real craftsmanship.”

Aside from IPL, Plastique Art’s other main customer in the early days was Prevost Car – now known simply as Prevost – a manufacturer of touring coaches and bus shells for high-end motorhomes and specialty conversions, and which is also located in Sainte-Claire. “They asked us to make interior plastic parts for their buses, and this eventually led us to leave the sign business and toothbrush business in order to focus exclusively on thermoforming,” Baillargeon said.

Baillargeon himself joined the company in 1998, and the succession to the third generation was underway. “When I was in high school I worked on the shop floor during summers, but throughout university I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make it my career,” he said. “But I’ve always been interested in business, and my degree is in business administration, so I joined to become involved on the business side. I tried it and enjoyed it, so I stayed.” In 1999, Baillargeon began buying shares in the company. “By 2010, I was the sole owner, and that was when my father retired,” he said. “I’ve been the president and CEO since 2006.”

Thermoforming is a process that involves heating a plastic sheet and forming it to specific shapes using vacuum and a mold. The shaped plastic then gets cooled down and CNC-trimmed to result in the finished part. The process can produce a wide range of products, from intricate medical devices to large automotive parts to truly huge plastic projects – unlike most other plastic molding processes which are limited to smaller items. At the same time, it’s relatively cost-effective due to the minimal waste produced and the low labour and tooling costs involved. “The greatest economies in thermoforming are achieved at low to moderate volumes, usually 100 to 10,000 units per year depending on the part size,” Baillargeon said. “And the lower part costs allow thermoforming to compete directly with fibreglass and metal fabrication while achieving higher production rates.” And nearly all types of resin are suitable for thermoforming, he added, including post-consumer plastics.

AT YOUR SERVICE

Plastique Art offers a range of services, beginning with part design. “We have a team of experts that can recommend the best materials, processes, and tools,” Baillargeon said. “From there, our factory offers vacuum, pressure, and twin-sheet thermoforming capabilities. We currently have 5 thermoforming machines that can mold parts up to 80 by 120 inches; and 6 CNC digital machining centres for cutting and trimming. Finally, we offer value-added services like gluing, welding, product assembly, paint, and other finishing and decoration processes.”

Plastique Art’s thermoforming machines come primarily from one vendor. “We selected one brand ten years ago that offered customized machines that we were able to modify for our own needs,” Baillargeon said. And while the basic thermoforming process remains the same, he continued, the technology has definitely improved over the years, as the field has seen an infusion of advanced software that brings a new level of precision. “And in the machines themselves, there are also more sensors allowing for better heating and cooling control – giving us more uniform stretching of the sheet – which allows for more complex shapes and more consistent parts,” he said. “Generally, the European machines are more energy efficient and have more advanced features than North American brands, but the North American OEMs are starting to catch up.”

Moreover, automation has been a game-changer, including at Plastique Art. Industry-wide, some experts say, top speeds of thermoformers are being restricted by the ability to handle parts at those speeds. Which is where making the process faster and more consistent by employing robotic arms and automated workflow systems comes in. “Twenty-five years ago, all our parts were trimmed by hand,” Baillargeon said. “We were one of the first thermoformers to embrace using CNC – which crossed over from the woodworking industry – for part trimming, and now almost 100 per cent of what we trim is CNC-trimmed with automation. Customers are always concerned about the accuracy of the trimming and the placement of any part holes, and our CNC technology provides this. It’s a big boost to our productivity and part consistency, and it also frees our workers from these repetitive manual tasks, which can be unsafe if not done properly.”

In theory, automating part handling creates a gap in the inspection process traditionally done by operators. At Plastique Art, this is augmented by using 3D laser scanners to validate the dimensions of the part.

GETTING SMART

Another advancement at Plastique Art has been the integration of smart technologies. “Beginning 10 years ago, we started connecting all of our machines so that we can monitor them in real time,” Baillargeon said. “We’ve been on the smart factory journey for a while, and it’s not finished yet. Before thermoforming machines came with these connected technologies, we added them ourselves in-house.”

A big force driving the automation and smart technologies trends – not just at Plastique Art, not just in thermoforming, but across the entire plastics manufacturing sector – is the lack of skilled labour that’s impacting the ability to meet production output and deliver customer orders. And Plastique Art isn’t immune. “Finding skilled labour is tough, and we have training programs to school our new workers in-house,” Baillargeon said. “At a minimum, our new operators need to be good with a bandsaw, and beyond that we’ll train them to become skilled operators. With the automation we’ve added, we’ve made the operator’s job easier – nowadays, the engineering knowledge on the operator’s part comes more from knowing how to use the controls and to set the recipes.”

Other facts on the ground, however, are different for thermoforming companies than for processors of other types of plastic molding. “Thermoformers make small-scale production runs of big parts, which makes the parts prohibitively expensive to ship over long distances, so there’s not much overseas, or even international, competition,” Baillargeon said. “At Plastique Art, we’re not competing against China, Europe or the U.S.; our competition is local, mainly in eastern Canada.” But at least that pool of competitors is stable. “There are few, if any, startups, and because of mergers and acquisitions – especially in the U.S. – there are probably fewer thermoforming shops, by company name, than there were 20 years ago,” he said.

LOOKING AHEAD

According to Baillargeon, Plastique Art’s 3-phase, $3-million investment is part of the firm’s standardization and modernization strategy. “We want to maintain a machine park that incorporates the latest molding and cutting technologies,” he said. “Standardization of the machine park will make it easier to train new employees and optimize working methods.”

The company’s headquarters with expansion at upper right. Photo Credit: Plastique Art

The purchase of new equipment, meanwhile, will enable the company to smooth production, reduce delivery times, and double its production capacity for large parts up to two metres by three metres. And the plant expansion represents an opportunity to optimize production flow, improve efficiency, and save storage space. “Our entire team is actively involved in moving the machines, without interrupting the production, so that we can receive the new machines in late 2024,” Baillargeon said.

Plastique Art has doubled its revenues since 2021, Baillargeon said, and is now reaching the highest production levels in its history, with growing demand for large parts in particular. But the firm still isn’t satisfied. “We’re going after new markets and, backed up by our new investment, we think we have a real chance to grow our business – for example, by replacing metal or fibreglass in products like electric vehicle parts, for gains in weight savings and cost savings,” he said. “In some ways, thermoforming and fibreglass are similar processes, but typical thermoformed parts may be as much as 30 per cent cheaper, on average, than similar fibreglass parts, while also being lighter and more recyclable. We’re also thinking about exporting more into the U.S. in the next few years, and this is part of our growth strategy. We’re a third-generation company, but in some ways it feels like we’re just beginning.”