Distortion when printing and forming

[andersb13517347]

Hello guys!

I have a problem I was hoping you could give me some pointers to.

I've run into some trouble when we print on plastic, and then later vacuumform the plastic onto molds.

When the plastic is heated and formed over the mold, the plastic stretches, thereby distorting the printed image.

ATM I have to correct every time we put in a new image, and then run it and see if I hit. 2-6 attempts usually gets me there.

I am thinking there must be a smarter way of doing this, I tried printing out grids of 2x2cm to map the distortion, and its pretty consistant.

It does not have to be 100% perfect, but it would be nice to get rid of the "big" distortions.

How would you guys go about to countereffect this distortion?

Found an image that is pretty much the same as what I do.

DistortionImage

[Ussnorway · Accepted solution]

Big molds = "big" distortions so the way I would fix that is to make smaller molds when I need an image on it

p.s, this question has nothing to do with Adobe Dimension

[andersb13517347]

Smaller molds are not an option.

I was thinking maybe there is a way to 3D scan the molded product, and then use that scan to map the distortion. 

Since Adobe dimension is good for wrapping objects i figured i would ask here.

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

I think you can use Adobe Photosshop print mode for testing your model and find solution. There you can see your printed model visualy. Or also for testing use Microsoft 3d print. 

[Ussnorway]

yes you can map the distortion but what you really need is for there to be no distortion... at least not under the image parts. it is possible to print your mold from a different location to fine tune the results but I assume you only have access to a single 3D printer anyway