Abstract
The vacuum forming (or compressed air forming) has been used from old times in Japan. In this procedure, the material processed into a plate or sheet in advance is formed into a specific product by softening by heat and by applying a male or female die with a compressed or vacuum force. This forming method originated from the low temperature compression forming (“yushibori kako” in Japanese) of the celluloid sheet. By improving the disadvantages of the vacuum or compressed air forming, the Next Generation Forming (NGF), innovative forming method comparing with existing vacuum or compressed air forming, has been developed. In addition, the most advantageous feature that no vacuum hole is required in this forming method has been further improved to develop the Three-dimensional Overlay Method (TOM). The progress and the future prospect of a series of the development will be reviewed in this article.
