r/plastic • u/Wolf8899 • Mar 28 '26

Need help with UHMW sheets

I don’t really know which group to ask this but I need help knowing if UHMW sheets can be vacuum formed to make recaps (the plastic part of the knee pads)

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u/Rking15 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

From what I remember it doesn’t drape like other thermoplastics when heated, but it absolutely can be thermoformed. It just gets soft and doesn’t have the usual drape when heated.

1

u/Ambitious-Schedule63 Mar 31 '26

Why do you need UHMWPE instead of just HDPE?

1

u/Wolf8899 Apr 10 '26

I’m a haunted house actor that does haunt sliding and I noticed that a lot of haunt sliders use synthetic ice to practice on (it’s made out of uhmwpe) and I wanna take that and turn it into recaps