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New Product Development: Drilling thin laminate question

Hello everyone,

I am currently working an developing a new house hold product. The product is in Patent Pending status.

I am interested in locating a manufacturer (preferably close to Atlanta) that has the capability to drill a field of holes in a very thin laminate described below: Simply stated, the laminate is "plastic coated aluminum foil".

Top Layer: Plastic: 0.85 - 2 mil thickness. I have built prototypes using both 0.85 and 2 mil plastic. The source of the 0.85 mil plastic is the standard "generic" garbage bag - just to give you an idea of the type of plastic I'm using.

Center Layer: 0.93 mil +/- 10%. This is standard heavy duty aluminum foil.

Bottom Layer: Same as Top Layer.

In the perfect world, the laminate would be available in roll format. Perhaps there is a machine that would pull the laminate from the roll while drilling.

Alternatively, the laminate could be cut down into individual sheets that could be fed to a machine that would drill each sheet ... or several sheets could be stacked on top of each other and drilled through - it all depends on the drilling machine.

The perfect width of the laminate is 17 inches. The field of holes is at least 10 1/2 inches wide, which could run the entire length of the laminate. The field of holes is centered, so there is approximately 3

1/4 inches of undrilled laminate on each side.

The diameter of each hole is 1/8 inch. The spacing between holes in approximately 1/2 inch.

Any thoughts, advice, etc. is sincerely appreciated. I will also be happy to answer questions that would not require a non-disclosure agreement.

Thanks in advance!

--Ed

Reply to
Blarg
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Seems like you need a hole puncher, not an actual drilling. Hole punchers can make cleaner holes in thin materials like such drills can get pretty messy on such thin material.

I am sorry to say, I do not know companies that offer such a service. It seems it may be up to you. :(

Reply to
Spaceman

Hmmm...looks like you disclosed the idea. Anyway - there's a high volume method - feed through a roll with dies and a roll with punches in register to pop all the holes at once, or as a slow speed prototype use a row of dies, with a row of punches - perforate and step on.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

Reply to
Brian Whatcott

Any Printed Circuit Board shop can do that kind of work

Reply to
Harry Andreas

This method sounds very interesting - greatly appreciated. --Ed

Reply to
Blarg

Thanks for the thought on hole punchers. I agree that drilling is not as clean, and even at slow RPM (about 5000) I still see (although very infrequently) some evidence of melting. Should have seen the first prototype get destroyed when drilling at 30000 RPM - LOL! I also attribute the destruction to using an inferior adhesive, but I learned from that one.

--Ed

Reply to
Blarg

Very interesting - never would have thought have that! Thanks, --Ed

Reply to
Blarg

Really??? I never would have thought of that... Thanks! --Ed

Reply to
Blarg

Ed, There are a lot of companies that specialize in custom perforating metals and plastics. A few examples are:

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There may be a company in the Atlanta area that can produce your prototype. Go to
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and search under "Plastics: Perforated" or "Metals: Perforated".

You might also get lucky and find a company that already has a suitable perforated plastic/metal laminate in stock!

Good Luck

To reply, my name is Paul D Oosterhout and I work for SAIC [use lower case characters]

Reply to
Paul O

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